Re: Crocus April 2009

[tonyg]

Fantastic to see them flowering in nature -thank you!!
Crocus vernus in the broadest sense is very variable.  I love the tiny ones and C napolitanus is a favourite.  You are the best judge of whether the larger blue one is a garden escape .... if it grows on the mountains, far from man then it is likely wild, if near a house or where people once lived then ?maybe garden form.

[ranunculus]

Spring is arriving for you, Hans and the threat of avalanches is receding ... enjoy the onset of spring my friend and the glorious summer that will surely follow.

[Guff]

Boyed, thanks for the info.

I did look at the Twilight(but not Twilight plant). I don't see any bad/lighter stripes about the leaves though. Will have a closer look at the other Twilight's tomorrow, maybe I can see the leaf mosaic.

Picture 1 vernus ssp. albiflorus?
Picture 2/3 Michael's Purple?   I did some color edit to this, first is the camera image, second is (about) the color I see.

[Janis Ruksans]

Crocuses bloom here outside for some days but in greenhouse only C. minimus left.
Here last selection marked only yesterday - C. korolkowii seedling with almost orange flowers. Hope it will increase.
Another - Crocus offered on trade as angustifolius Bronze form - of course it isn't angustifolius, most possibly hybrid with it.
And as last virus infected heuffelianus on old field where most of bulbs are eaten by rodents. It looks that they don't liked infected buld as I. Nice would be tame them just and only for infected bulbs...
Janis

[udo]

My last Crocus for this spring,
Crocus minimus from Col de Bavella, Corsica

[Guff]

Janis, I was wondering or anyone else. As the flowers flop down and lay against other leaves of other plants could this then transfer a virus, if said plants were infected?

[Guff]

Twilight

This year all the Twilight's have pollen, maybe I will get some seed.

[Oron Peri]

My last Crocus for this spring,
Crocus minimus from Col de Bavella, Corsica

Udo,

Does this species  blooms for you always at this time of the year?

It seems that the commercial strain, which is a common one blooms much earlier, at the same time as C. corsicus. Any way yours looks different to that.

I really wonder about these two species

[tonyg]

My last Crocus for this spring,
Crocus minimus from Col de Bavella, Corsica

Udo,
Does this species  blooms for you always at this time of the year?
It seems that the commercial strain, which is a common one blooms much earlier, at the same time as C. corsicus. Any way yours looks different to that.
I really wonder about these two species

'Bavella' is also the last to flower here, after trade minimus and corsicus.  I would like to see them in the wild, preferably over the growing season rather than on a 'flying visit', I think this might help enlighten us about these two/this one species in Corsica.

[Sinchets]

These pics have been posted in a travelogue elsewhere, but for the Croconuts here's Crocus veluchensis in the wild.

[Paul T]

That last shot really is quite amazing.  The thought of seeing something like that in the wild just blows my mind. 

[Sinchets]

That's exactly what it did for us, Paul. There were sheets of them in the woods lower down the slope, but seeing them near the melting snow, with the blue sky above, just made it one of those perfect days.

[Otto Fauser]

Can't express my thoughts any better than Paul has done ,also the stunning Erythronium d. -c. with entire purple leaves !
 The Crocus meadow reminds me of a meadow here in Victoria many years ago -a sea of yellow :our native terrestrial Donkey Orchid =Diuris longifolia in bloom.

[Sinchets]

Otto- I'm holding the smelling salts under Chris' nose. Do the Diuris still grow like that?

[Armin]

Simon,
simply superb crocus carpet.