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Kath's Crocus (Crocus danfordiae blue form)I got this bonny wee crocus many years ago (1994) as a gift from Kath Dryden. I subsequently lost interest in growing plants for over 15 years and during that time I lost many plants. This one declined to a single tiny corm with no label and when it flowered last year (the first for many years) I didn't know what it was. I have recently refurbished the bulb frame that it was rescued from and found the old faded label with Kath's name.
I got this bonny wee crocus many years ago (1994) as a gift from Kath Dryden. I subsequently lost interest in growing plants for over 15 years and during that time I lost many plants. This one declined to a single tiny corm with no label and when it flowered last year (the first for many years) I didn't know what it was. I have recently refurbished the bulb frame that it was rescued from and found the old faded label with Kath's name.
Light levels here have been dire for the last 5-6 days with the brief sunny spells being too short to have any impact. As a result many crocus flowers are failing to open. I can persuade the flower buds to open by placing the plants under a small halogen lamp for about 30 minutes but this light source is of no use for photography resulting in a very false colour balance to the image. The same issue of light quality arises when trying to photograph flowers in poor winter light -especially when there is thick cloud cover, rain or snow. In these situations the longer wavelength colours (particularly red and to a lesser extent yellow) penetrate poorly whilst the short wavelength high energy colours of blue and violet penetrate well and create an almost phosphorescent effect. In such situations red flowers appear dark or even almost black whilst those with a hint of blue or violet in the flower will almost "fluoresce" these colours. In comparison the series of this (admittedly quite bluish) clone of Crocus biflorus ssp. nubigena were taken under a very heavy sky just as it started to snow. The effect was to produce marked enhancement of the blue/indigo/violet. This is not a fault of the camera (Canon and Nikon SLRs have excellent colour balance algorithms) it is simply that the ambient conditions have effectively filtered out the long wavelength colours. You can check this effect out for yourself. Crocus aerius, Crocus abantensis, Crocus baytopiorum and some of the C. biflorus spp are ideal. You may need to use an artificial light/heat source to keep the flower open until dusk but if you can achieve this then check out the colour of the flowers in these Crocus -there is a hidden beauty that is visible to insect eyes but can barely be appreciated by us except for that short-lived magical time just before dusk (or under very heavy skies -especially when raining/snowing).