Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Bulbs => Crocus => Topic started by: Lesley Cox on August 04, 2010, 10:45:51 AM
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Here we are in August already and (I hope) entering another spring. This is the southern hemisphere of course but maybe northerners will enjoy our topsy-turvy flowering time.
These are in flower now and have been for a few days but I had a computer problem. Went to upload the pics and the screen went black and a few seconds later, the whole shebang turned off. That happened a couple more times so another trip down the road to the computer man. All is well for the moment but I think I'll need a new machine quite soon. Never mind, here are...
Crocus cvijicii x veluchensis. This is a pretty one rather like a creamy version of cvijicii and it is increasing well. I have 3 pots now and will plant them out soon.
C gargaricus
C. sieberi ssp atticus
C. cvijicii (for comparison with the first two).
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Crocus biflorus ssp. melantherus. This has been out for a month.
C. biflorus alexandri. The same one as posted by Tony G a while back but in bright sunshine it looks almost white on the inside.
C. biflorus ssp astrospermus. This little gem is new to me and the picture is a pale shadow, the flower being a rich blue, very tiny and with a navy blue patch at the bases of the outside petals. The who plant is just about 3cms high.
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And when I do the attachthumb thing, I'm told it was incorrect, but it wasn't. >:(
Crocus olivieri ssp olivieri
The precious C. olivieri ssp balansae 'Chocolate Soldier'
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Just look at the (correct) colouring of that bud at the bottom of the last picture!
Maggi, can you remove the extra post above please. Getting to a stage where I may throw this machine out the window!
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I've removed the stray post , Lesley.
It's very cheery to see your Spring flowers.... the 'Chocolate Soldier' is very cute.
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Thanks Maggie.
The Chocolate Soldier has impeccable provenance. Mine is from Marcus Harvey in Tasmania, Marcus's was from Alan Edwards, Alan's from Primrose Warburg and hers from E A Bowles. Almost like a direct line back to Robert the Bruce. ;D
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The Chocolate Soldier has impeccable provenance. Mine is from Marcus Harvey in Tasmania, Marcus's was from Alan Edwards, Alan's from Primrose Warburg and hers from E A Bowles. Almost like a direct line back to Robert the Bruce. ;D
Better, in my view: after all, Robert the Bruce is more famous for hanging about in caves with spiders than his crocus collection!! ;)
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Lesley, that is very nice to see sipring crocuses at this time of year! Your dark form of C. biflorus atrospermus is very nice.
How do you do for summer rains for growing in plastic bags! That seems an easy way but I have very often rain also in sumer time! I don't think that will work for my climate!
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Great stuff Lesley !! The "chocolate soldier" looks gorgeous - and so do the others... :D :D
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here, here,good enough to eat :D
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Lesley,
I envy you for some real nice croci :o ;D
How does it come C. biflorus ssp. melantherus flowering in spring?
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Armin, C. biflorus melanantherus usually starts to flower for me in late May which is late autumn but it goes right through the winter and it is very EARLY spring as yet :). I think the seasons may be less well defined here than in parts of Europe or Asia with colder winters than ours. But my C. laevigatus never flowers until winter yet in others' gardens it is autumn flowering.
Ibrahim, we have very little rain in summer, even here in the lower South Island, the cooler part of the country. It can be absolutely dry from say November through February or even March. But sometimes we DO get rain and it never seems to be a problem with bulbs. I don't grow in plastic bags on a permanent basis, only for new things that I need to see what they'll do so all these in bags (or rather their contents) will be planted in the garden in the summer. In my little nursery I use the plastic bags though, because they do hold water better than pots and since we only have water from the sky - no town supply - plastic planter bags cut down the watering by at least 50% or more. Because the plants are packed together in trays, that too helps retain water, without a lot of air circulating around them. As well of course, for the nursery, the planter bags are almost weightless and are inexpensive.
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Lesley , good to see so many nice Crocus from your collection . I would have liked to take a number of photos in my garden too ,but constant heavy rain , storms and hail during the last few days have flattened most of them . Here ,the various collected forms of C. laevigatus all flower in April , only the old commercial form 'Fontenayii' extends the season into late May and June . Also D. biflorus ssp. melantherus always fl. in autumn here.
Your cvijicii x veluchensis is nice - I have never attempted this cross - in colour it certainly favours cvijicii . My biflorus ssp. atrospermus is as dark as yours : did your's come from Erich Pasche too?
What are the differences between C. gargaricus and herbertii ?and which species is the one you posted ?
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Love all your crocussesses, Lesley! As I have mentioned before, I flowered my first one ever from seed this season (C. goulimyi) and really enjoyed the little thing. I also have a few seedlings of C. cartwrightianus, but they are weak and probably will not make it to flowering size - a pity... Our warm winters and early springs are not the best for Crocus and many other things, but I'll certainly be trying a few more from seed next year - perhaps C. hadriaticus will also do well here?
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I agree with Otto and Rogan ,some lovely Crocus Lesley.
I have a number in loose bud awaiting another warm sunny spell like last weekend.Isn't likely to be the next few days as snow is forecast down to the foothills over the weekend.
Here is one that has a lovely feathering --intially i wondered if it could be C imperati :-\,however after work today ,a little peek and gentle forcing and i see the inside is white with a yellow throat so it seems the label maybe correct as Crocus biflorus ssp biflorus :D
Cheers Dave.
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Lesley,
thank you for explaining the seasonal differences. I would find it challenging to cross C. biflorus ssp. melantherus with an spring crocus i.e C. chrysanthus?
Did you ever try?
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Thanks everyone, yes crocus te is the real harbinger of spring to come but as Dave says, the weekend's forecast is nasty with snow to low levels.
Otto, I think my laevigatus must be v. fonteneyi, which I imported from Van Tubergen many years ago when such things were possible. The only other I have a s F/S is from Marcus, the so called "gold" backed form, a soft yellow in my mind with white inners. But that flowered last year in spring too.
The biflorus astrospermus also came from Marcus but he may have had it from Pasche. The picture shows it lavender or purple but in reality it is much closer to blue and a good rich blue at that. I really love it. So tiny and perfect for a trough I think.
The gargaricus pic is of staright gargaricus but I have ssp herbertii as well and I can see no difference whatsoever. ::)
I never attempted the cvijicii/veluchensis cross. I collected seed twice off the former and both times they turned out to be the hybrid. Since I moved cvijicii, I've not had any seed at all, veluchensis no longer being nearby. Would cvijicii cross with sieberi? I ask because also nearby was 'Bowles' White' and a few of the hybrid seedlings were pure white with a little yellow in the throat, seedlings from cvijicii, that is.
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No I never tried that Armin but since C biflorus ssp melantherus is out and so are one or two chrysanthus vars, 'Zwanenburg Bronze,' for instance, as soon as the sun warms a little (both rain and frost over night) I'll go out with a paint brush. :D
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Lesley,
maybe you will breed the first yellow/orange autuum flowering, easy growing, biflorus/chrysanthus hybrid with black anthers and nicely striped outside? :o 8) ;D
A color which is very rare in autuum croci (except C. scharojanii).
I would be interested if such combination works and you get viable seed or if there is a genetical barrier.
Good luck! ;)
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I'll try Armin! :D
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Marcus Harvey in Tasmania has a new seedlist available now and it contains many Crocus species as well as Colchicum, Fritillaria, Calochortus and others. He posts seed overseas and will send an email list if asked. hillview400@hotmail.com
Glad I've already sent my order off! ;D
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Yesterday got very sads news about death of very famous gardener and my great friend Jim Archibald. To establish his memory I decided to name this crocus, collected during common trip as Crocus hittiticus 'Jim'.
Janis
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Janis, it is so very sad about Jim's death , I know but it is somehow a good feeling to think of this lovely flower bringing him to mind.
Would you do me a great favour and post your message and this picture of the crocus in the thread where Ji'm death is recorded?
It is here: http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=5879.0
Thank you,
Maggi
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Down south again, Crocus angustifolius has come out. It looks great in the sunshine.
[attachthumb=1]
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Janis, your photograph of Crocus hittiticus 'Jim', shown here, is a wonderful tribute to your friend that will live on in memory of all that he did and meant to you, thank you so much for showing it.
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This weekend in flower: Crocus scharojanii
from NO-Turkey, unusual small this year
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This weekend in flower: Crocus scharojanii
from NO-Turkey, unusual small this year
Due horrible hot (over +30 C) all flowerbuds of scharojanii with me schrivelled and dried out after only showing some color below cataphylls.
Janis
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A few in flower now in the Southern Hemisphere. Some pictures are truly dreadful for which I apologise but when I went out to retake, the rain has mushed them altogether. I may have some spelling incorrect too.
1 Is this one C. vernus? It appeared as a single flower last year where I never planted it and is obviously going to make a nice clump quickly.
2 C. olivieri ssp balansae, the first to flower from Thomas H's seed. From this ssp is the selection 'Chocolate Soldier.'
3 C. chrysanthus 'Eyecatcher'
4 and 5 C. x Bornmuelleri, new this year from Marcus Harvey
6 C. sieberi 'Midas Touch.' I expected this to be more gold rather than creamy.
7 and 8 C. minimus albus
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Lesley , I like your C. x bornmuelleri very much .
and your ? vernus is just a pale Tommy - soon you will have a clump of a thousand!
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Thanks for that Otto. I'm delighted to have a pale Tommy as honestly, I have never had tommies before, except a couple I ordered last year from Marcus - and one of those died! No idea where this one came from, maybe a seed in a nursery pot from somewhere. When I have 100 plus, I'll plant them out in the grass. :D
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Lesley , theCrocus season is coming to the end here ,with constant rain for a week I only managed to take a few pictures of closed up blooms , but after years of drought we must not complain of too much rain .
2 var. of C. (vernus) heuffelianus
and a late C. cvijicii
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Otto,
in spite of the rain - I like the high contrasted buds of your C. vernus ssp. heuffelianus 8)
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....C. olivieri ssp balansae, the first to flower from Thomas H's seed. .....
Great to see this flower again, Lesley. I've only seen it once in my garden in 2005 but since that time
they didn't flower again. They are still alive, but only form small corms - seems like they don't like my garden :-[
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Hello Thomas,
C. olivieri ssp balansae didn't like my garden conditions, too.
Unfortunately I lost it. :(
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Hmm, seems like this form is cultivated for Dutch fields only - and Lesley's garden.
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Hello Thomas,
C. olivieri ssp balansae didn't like my garden conditions, too.
Unfortunately I lost it. :(
Hmm, seems like this form is cultivated for Dutch fields only - and Lesley's garden.
I bet these are microprops. Hence difficult or impossible to establish permanently under 'normal' conditions
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Well I'm truly sorry that I have it in flower and you don't. :D I'll do my best to keep it alive and flowering each year. Like some other very small forms I thought I might try it in a trough.