Crocus January 2015

[Janis Ruksans]

Another special crocus.  Crocus reticulatus, form from Mt Falakro, Greece.  Original collection David Stephens 2002, these are seedlings from 2005 seed.  Freshly open today .... indoors, it's perishing cold outside.  Just two or three corms, flowering well.  Little chance of seed set in this cold weather but I will hand pollinate in a day or two, bring them onto a cool windowsill overnight ... and pray! 

(Attachment Link)

It isn't C. reticulatus, but just recently named Crocus orphei - very special species from very isolated but quite large population. Unfortunately not seen by me in nature. I three times went there to search for it and allways were stopped by late snowfall.
Janis

[Janis Ruksans]

Great show, Ruben !  I love the C. sieberi sieberi

Some more in flower over here :


Crocus biflorus ssp adamii

Crocus biflorus ssp alexandri - the blue on the outers is almost black 

Hi Luc,
C. alexandri - is it wild form or Dutch garden cultivar?
Janis

[Janis Ruksans]

Here still is winter. The mildest in my memory - only two nights with minus 17 C, but in general not lower than minus 10-12 , mostly only slightly below zero. Hope that February and March will not bring bad weather surprises. But several earliest (Central Asian) crocuses are showing flower buds. At present I saw flowers only of those which I brought inside on my bathrooms windowsill for herbariums.
Janis

[tonyg]

It isn't C. reticulatus, but just recently named Crocus orphei - very special species from very isolated but quite large population. Unfortunately not seen by me in nature. I three times went there to search for it and allways were stopped by late snowfall.
Janis

Thank you Janis - I had a feeling that this had been given species rank.

[Yann]

Dark day not so much flowers this week.

Crocus paschei
Crocus rujanensis
Crocus versicolor 'NR 1'

[YT]

Crocus chrysanthus, JJA 343.210
Turkey, Kartal Geçidi. 1560m. Ex LST 068A.

This is the first flower from seeds, too

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Hi Luc,
C. alexandri - is it wild form or Dutch garden cultivar?
Janis

Hi Janis, I think it is a Dutch garden cultivar.

[Cyril L]

Crocus biflorus ssp alexandri - the blue on the outers is almost black 

Hi Janis, I think it is a Dutch garden cultivar.

Unique colour Luc, the black on the reverse of the outers is very eye-catching.  Has it got a cultivar name?

Only 2 crocus in flower outside:
Crocus imperati 'De Jager' (I have this in the garden since 1992).
Crocus olivieri (obtained as C. olivieri istanbulensis which it is not, according to the corm).

Crocus aerius (a dark form) in the greenhouse refuses to open.

[Thomas Huber]

Unique colour Luc, the black on the reverse of the outers is very eye-catching.  Has it got a cultivar name?

I don't know a cultivar name of Luc's wonderful plant - it is listed in the KAVB Checklist from 1996 as:
biflorus ssp alexandrii, 1894, SW Bulgaria, S Yugoslavia, FCC-RHS 1987

Bowles mentions it as form of Crcus biflorus in his 'Handbook of crocus and colchicum' and shows a drawing that looks like Luc's plant with its dark outer petals.

Unfortunately Jacobsen and van Scheepen don't mention it in their 1996 article about Crocus chrysanthus/biflorus cultivars, but they show the cultivar 'Crocus biflorus ssp alexandrii 'Major' with clearly blue outer petals, which was shown by Ruben some days ago as Crocus alexandrii.

All are great garden plants, hardy even in bad winters and I really loven them all 

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Unique colour Luc, the black on the reverse of the outers is very eye-catching.  Has it got a cultivar name?

I do not have a cultivar name, Cyril, but I'm quite happy with the information Thomas just mentioned !  Thanks a lot Thomas.

I must add that I'm very happy with the plant !

[Cyril L]

Thank you for this information Thomas.

I must add that I'm very happy with the plant !

Luc, it's easy to understand why you are happy with the plant, in fact you should be delighted!

[tonyg]

It is a lovely plant Luc, reminded me of cultivar LadyKiller but looking at Thomas's reference pictures of this, yours is not quite the same.  However (risking controversy) yours does look very like Ruben's C biflorus alexandrii, pictured a few pages back.  The lighting is different which may account for the seemingly very dark colour of yours but maybe they came from the same source??

[Luc Gilgemyn]

It is a lovely plant Luc, reminded me of cultivar LadyKiller but looking at Thomas's reference pictures of this, yours is not quite the same.  However (risking controversy) yours does look very like Ruben's C biflorus alexandrii, pictured a few pages back.  The lighting is different which may account for the seemingly very dark colour of yours but maybe they came from the same source??

As far as I know, they did come from the same source, Tony... and I've also been thinking of the lighting.  I must say though, that my picture does reflect the colours seen with the naked eye... I'm hoping for some sun and warmth to take more pix of the open flowers.  Obviously, I will post them here then.