Viruses on crocuses

[Janis Ruksans]

After 9 days in hospital I returned to my crocuses in greenhouse. There waited nice and bad surprises. First seed capsule on C. kotschyanus cappadocicus split and first seeds were gathered to be sown tomorrow. And bad news, too.

For a long time I searched for C. olivieri istanbulensis and finally found that it is offered by some Rare Plants of P.C. As P.C. never sell something to me (afraid of competition?), I use as intermediates my friends in Germany, Sweden or UK. I got few corms quite late, when lost all hopes. They beautifully bloomed in spring, seems to be true to name. And now... you can watch picture. I can tell that rarely is occasion to see so heavily expressed symptoms on leaves. There no seed capsule are formed regardless of several times repeated hand-pollination this spring.

Another stock I got from my Belgium friend who several years ago baught few corms from Pottertons nursery. They were too small to bloom, but by crossection of leaves and by corm tunics looks true - those seem to be healthy.

Janis

[Lesley Cox]

Oh dear Janis, that IS a sorry picture.

I am always surprised at some people's attitude to "competition" in the nursery industry. I have had nurserymen and women refuse to sell to me too, I suppose because I may propagate and sell the plants I bought from A and B, to C and D. There is a lesson to be learned though and it is that when we lose a plant, if we haven't let anyone else have it or propagate it, that plant is lost. Forever lost, in our case as importing is no longer a possibility. So not selling to the competition is petty and ultimately, foolish.

There is just one nursery left in New Zealand that specializes in alpines.

[Armin]

Janis,
that's a pity for your breeding efforts.
But thanks for the "virused leaf" example.

[Boyed]

And that's how the leaf mosaic looks on the crocus vernus cultivar 'Negro Boy'. Very good photo clearly revealing the symptoms.

The picture is taken from the website of Polish company offering this variety. I obtained this variety several times from different companies and all delivered virused stock. So I am not sure that it is possible to obtaain healthy stock of 'Negro Boy' nowadays.

My last hope is a collector who grows it from very old time.

[Thomas Huber]

Zhirair, I have bought my plants in 2002 and they seem virusfree. I could send you some samples next
year, even if I have lost faith in Armenian mail after two of my packages to you were lost in the past.

[Janis Ruksans]

Zhirair, I have bought my plants in 2002 and they seem virusfree. I could send you some samples next
year, even if I have lost faith in Armenian mail after two of my packages to you were lost in the past.

Thomas, I never had problems sendind plants to Zhirair. Of course. I'm always attaching phyto-certificate. You can send bulbs to me and I will forward those to Zhirair.
Regarding your stock. It generally looks healthy although I don't like leaves of front plant. I copied this part of picture and attach to this entry.
Janis

[Thomas Huber]

Thanks for your help, Janis. Will send you Zhirair's corms and some extra for you in summer.
Then you can both decide from the original plant whether they are healthy or not.
Here one more old photo of the leaves. Sorry don't have new photos, but will
do some next spring.

[Boyed]

Thomas,

It’s quite strange, as during 8 year experience there were no package loss from abroad except your two. I don’t even know what to think.

Thanks for the nice photos and kind offer. In your picture if looks healthy, but again it is quite hard to make sure if they are 100%  free of virus. I consulted the nuances and nature of this type of virus with Janis Ruksans and some Dutch specialists and it turns out that leaf mosaic on crocuses is kind of a sly type. The thing is that not heavily infected plants may not show the symptoms of disease when grown well. They usually show the symptoms after harvesting and shipping the fist year, and then when grown well, the symptoms disappear (heavily infected ones always show the symptoms). The only way to reveal the symptoms is putting them under the stress. Baring in mind all this I made a test: I put some crocus vernus samples from my garden, which looked healthy under stress and next season they all showed the symptoms of decease. Anyway, I managed to get virus free stock of some crocus vernus Dutch large-flowering cultivars.

How I put them under stress: I plant the corms in pots very late during December or at the beginning of January, keep them in unheated place under the temperature -3 to +1 C and keep them watering during the whole winter, which they don’t like). Treated this way, all ill plants show the symptoms. Only after that the healthy corms corms go into the garden and the infected ones are trashed.

Janis,
thanks for your offer and comments. That’s what I mean – quite hard to be sure if the plants are 100% free of virus. The stock should be observed with great accuracy. Some show very slightest symptoms.

[Thomas Huber]

Thomas,
It’s quite strange, as during 8 year experience there were no package loss from abroad except your two. I don’t even know what to think.

Zhirair, I know what I would think in your case, these two packages were also the only
ones I have lost from hundreds in the past, so we better forget that and start a new "game" 

Sorry, I can't replant my corms now, because they are all hidden in my lawn. Do you think it would be stress enough
for the plants, if I dig them up next spring while flowering? Will place them in a pot then and
wait if any virus stripes appear. If not the corms will be sent to Janis. Does that make sense?

[Boyed]

Thomas,

Maybe the reason was that you sent the packages by ground mail. Our country is connected with outwards only by air.

I don’t think that replanting the crocuses during flowering time will reveal virus symptoms on their leaves. Of course, it’ll be a stress for them, but the symptoms will be visible only the following year. Just it’ll be better to mark their place in the garden in order escape difficulties when digging out the corms. I will check them against virus in my quarantine area and let you know.
This year I am going to receive some corms of it from a collector. So if they are healthy, I might not ask you send it. In spring it’ll be clear. But I will kindly ask you to collect some seeds of this variety if possible. It is reported that some seedlings from named cultivars can very closely resemble their mother plants.

[Thomas Huber]

That's the way we should do that - will keep an eye on the seeds and keep you in touch.