Crocus March 2012

[Lillii]

Thank you Janis

[hadacekf]

Janis thank you for your help. I'm sorry that you had so much snow during your visit to Greece.
I have difficulty identifying my crocuses of Chios. I have no more original plant. It flowers over a hundred seedlings and each seedling looks different.
I think perhaps some crocuses are hybrids because other species blooming besides.

[Janis Ruksans]

As I finished with my travel diary, I have some time for other crocuses. Today is not the happiest. I started to register losses of winter. The first crocus rising trouble was C. goulimyi which leaves started to yellow too early. As stock is large I dug out one corm - mother bulb looked suspicious for frost damage but as leaves were staying for long, they built up quite good replacement bulb. Today took out some C. laevigatus - the best stock from Metohi. Corms were killed but there were good seed pods between leaves and those I harvested for drying. Seems that they will be quite good. Not so good with spring bloomers. Very suspicious look some of C. sieberi, adanensis, minimus, flavus sarichinarensis. Very suspicious are aleppicus, boryi, caspius, serotinus, vitellinus and some others.
Amazing situation with C. atticus Bowles' White. I'm usually growing it in garden but for safety some allways are potted for greenhouse. Now it perfectly bloom in garden but pot plants all are gone - flower development stopped at soil level and corms are rotten - no disease, just frost.
It is the third most worth season in my 50 years of Crocus growing. At present seems that I will loose around 100-200 stocks (from 1300) of crocuses, but situation can be more horrible, as development only started. Strange year - more susceptible aroids not suffered at all.
In this entry some from biflorus and chrysanthus group.
Janis

[Janis Ruksans]

Some more for today
Crocus candidus and its form Orangino
C. flavus sarichinarensis - this is last picture of them - development stopped and almost 100% will be lost.
Crocus olivieri balansae 'Chocolate Soldier' and
C. vitellinus from Syria collected by Arnis around 10 years ago.
Janis

[Janis Ruksans]

One of Crocus x paulinae variants.
Crocus danfordiae variability (some pot with C. minutus between them, too).
Janis

[Janis Ruksans]

Here season starts much later, so my entries start when those from others end. Here some pictures from yesterday.
Janis

[Janis Ruksans]

Some more.
Janis

[anita]

Janis, Really sorry to hear of your stock losses.  It's hard for me to imagine such impacts from frost, living as I do in a mild, frost free winter zone.
I was interested in your Chocolate Soldier, the photos I've seen previously had Chestnut outers not inners. Here's one posted by Fermi for Marcus Harvey. http://www.srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=3947.30
Anita

[Janis Ruksans]

I was interested in your Chocolate Soldier, the photos I've seen previously had Chestnut outers not inners. Here's one posted by Fermi for Marcus Harvey. http://www.srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=3947.30
Anita

  Good joke! Succeed! The "mystery" reason is very simple. I too late opened windows that morning and so temperature in greenhouse due sunny day rised up to +30 C and flowers opened very flat and even petals turned down. When temperature dropped and flowers started to close, they accidentally misplaced. The first turned up outer whorl segments and so they became "inner" and those from inner whorl started turning up later and enclosed outer ones. Such is process how so unusual flowers arised.
Janis

[Janis Ruksans]

Here returned winter. Outside is snow and frost. Offered even minus 5 in day and minus 10m in nights, so I can return on forum with few pictures from yesterday.
Now Crocus antalyensis variability.
At first commercial form, grown in Holland and got be me from Willem van Eeden.
Then follow gatherings from Turkey. Sample TULA is from very NW of area, note white stigmas.
After that subsp. striatus - feature - striped petals inside (picture made in friend's garden, mine didn't bloom this year), but last two were collected quite far from striatus "locus classicus" - they are striped inside, too but in different pattern.
Janis

[Janis Ruksans]

Few other late blooming
Crocus heuffelianus Snow Princess (from Dirck)
2 heuffelianus seedlings from my Estonian friend Taavi Tuulik
Crocus scepusiensis form got from Galanthus Man - Colin Mason
I'm not great lover of "tommies"- but that and some others from another galanthofile John Grimshaw are fantastic.
And as last - one of first cvijicii pots.
Janis

[udo]

many nice flowers, Janis

Here my last Crocus for this spring,
Crocus minimus 'Little Girl', the flower is only three centimetre high

[Armin]

  to see the nice C. heuffelianus & scepusiensis forms, Janis.

Dirk,
the C. minimus are lovely and well grown. Did you protect them?
After the strong bare frosts all my C. minimus are in heaven now...

[Anthony Darby]

Some fantastic crocuses there.

[udo]

to see the nice C. heuffelianus & scepusiensis forms, Janis.

Dirk,
the C. minimus are lovely and well grown. Did you protect them?
After the strong bare frosts all my C. minimus are in heaven now...

Armin, not protect on open beds. We had 5 cm snow in the very cold period.