Crocus January 2007

[Guff]

Thomas, how many years have you been working on your sea of crocus? Also how many crocus would you say you have around your yard?

[Thomas Huber]

Guff, I started in 2000 with only a few garden-center cultivars.
In the next  years many more were planted, but it was not
before 2004 that I started collecting wild plants. To plant them
in an adequate place I built the rockgarden in 2005.
I really don't know how many crocus I have, but I'm sure
it's more than 10.000!

[Guff]

Thomas, can't wait to see your 2007 pictures. Soon you will have 20K, thats going to be amazing.

Have you seen the Crocus Carpet at Kew Gardens in England.



http://www.kew.org/places/tour/crocus.html

[Casalima]

From the sublime to the ridiculous. i.e. from 10,000 to 1  My Crocus pestalozzae caeruleus, not very caeruleus.

Chloe

[Joakim B]

Chloe
One has to start from something. You have the elephant head to fill with something so who knows who will have the most in a few years time?!
Maybe 10000 crocuses on a balcony would be to much?

It looks nice atleast for a non expert. 

The ones I have on the glassed balcony has gotten a bit bitten by aphids so they do not look that nice

I will try to post a pic later
Joakim

[Joakim B]

Here is a picture of an ermelin but with flees as an exception to all my cats posted earlier.
It is a crocus tommasinus called Barrs pourple. The aphids and the temperature changes of 30 degrees between warm and cold have it a bit stressed. A glassed balcony gets quite warm in the sun even if it is cold outside.
To get the more or less correct colour, I had to hold it against the window so it is not ideal focus but it was not time for more/better pics

Joakim

[mark smyth]

Can someone ID this badly out of focus Crocus bought as C. chrysanthus? Aphids not see while taking the photo are now in aphid heaven.

[Mick McLoughlin]

Finally get to see Crocus dalmaticus petrovac open today. After going to and from work in the dark all week, nice to have a bright day for a change.

[Maggi Young]

Beautiful shot of a super flower, Mick. We've had a bright day here, too. See my post in Weather moans!

[tonyg]

Mark - if leaves are wide and 3 or less per corm it could be C olivieri.  Otherwise probably a C chrysanthus or hybrid of.

[mark smyth]

5+ narrow leaves per corm

[mark smyth]

lots of tommies out today - 'Roseus' and 'Barr's Purple' but surely this cant be classed as white!? It's not the camera because the eyes see the same colour
C. tomm. 'Alba'

[David Nicholson]

After all the cracking Crocus pictures I have seen on this thread I hate to post this but I would welcome some advice. This is my first attempt at Crocus growing and I have started with some easy! species (chrysanthus and tomasinianus). I sought advice on 27 November as my chrysanthus pots, under glass, were showing well above the grit, and Tony G advised getting them out of the greenhouse. This I did, until the weather turned to day after day of driving rain and gales, so I put them back in the greenhouse again.

I am a bit disappointed with the pots of chrysanthus Romance. Firstly the packet described them as a "rich butter yellow" but mine bearly managed an incipid creamy yellow and most didn't open properly (see pretty crummy photo). My questions are: Should I have left them outside regardless of the weather? Given the number of dark and dismal days we have had is it likely that the weather and poor light levels have affected the colour and the opening buds? Disappointed, but not beaten, maybe the tommies will be better.

[mark smyth]

David I rarely see colours as described by suppliers. Maybe some exaggeration to help them sell. Yours could be 'Cream Beauty'

[David Shaw]

David, no disrespect to you but that looks like a pretty poor potfull of bulbs. As an experienced gardener but a novice at Crocus I would guess that you went to the local garden centre and bought a bag of their stock. I have never known such a bag only contain five corms and looking at the gaps in the pot I suspect that some have not come up. Also, with first year growth of newly purchased corm  I would expect them to flower pretty evenly.
 Given good stock to start with it is difficult not to get a display in the first year so I doubt that the problem is with you. It looks to me as if you have been sold a bag of crocus that have not been properly looked after.