Crocus March 2008

[Lvandelft]

Luit, in my copy of Collins Guide To Bulbs, by Patrick Synge (1961) it says 'Whitewell Purple' is "Named after the rectory where Rev. Joseph Jacob collected together so many unusual and good plants. Flower purplish-mauve outside, pale silvery-mauve inside. " There are also short descriptions for 'Taplow Ruby' and 'Barr's Purple' if you want those too.

Thank you Martin, I do have the book.
But with these colour descriptions you wouldn't come far.
To quote P. Synge:

Fl. purplish-mauve,but not quite so deep in colour although bluer than the preceeding (Taplow Ruby)

.
And for Taplow Ruby he gives: Dark rich reddish-purple, probably the deepest coloured form.
I cannot find any blue in this description.
So my question is: how blue is his or your or mine blue?
Blue in sunny weather or blue in rainy weather or blue after a long evening in the pub?

And then we have Mr. Mathew; Ruby Giant (red-purple, Taplow Ruby ( the deepest reddish purple)
What's the difference?

Shortly, what I mean is that the people writing these book probably never saw all the plants they write about.

[Martin Baxendale]

Yes, Luit, I realise the colour descriptions are not very useful. The important thing was to help confirm your idea about Whitewell referring to Rev. Joseph Jabob's rectory, as you mentioned to Thomas.

[Lvandelft]

Sorry Martin, my reply was suddenly in the Forum without being ready. Now it is.

[HClase]

Staale,

Maybe our climates are similar, even though Newfoundland is, in fact, much further south.  I have a few crocus in my lawn, although not on the scale of Thomas.  C. nudiflorus does very well here and builds up patches as it's stoloniferous, C. speciosus is not so good, but its offspring with C. pulchellus - 'Zephyr' is better.  I haven't tried C. kotschyanus in grass yet, although I might this year as it's doing reasonably well in a bed.  I've tried a few others, but our conditions are too hard for them.

Incidentally, C. nudiflorus has persisted in the UK in places where there were mediaeval "Lammas fields".  These were grazed in summer and winter, but left alone in spring and autumn, just suiting the requirements for leaves and flowers.  The only site in the UK I really knew was at Warwick race-course, where they even flowered in the middle of the track when I was there ten years or so ago.  One problem is that the local council had been encouraged to "protect" them and had fenced off the area beside the track where they grew, and didn't mow at all - allowing other vegetation to take over.  I wonder if there are any left now?

[mark smyth]

Here is my photo showing all tommasinianus cultivars that I had at the time

[Maggi Young]

Mark, can you recall which was which??

[Gerry Webster]

Apropos 'Ruby Giant'. In 'The Smaller Bulbs' (1987), BM opines that this form ("a very fine deep purple colour") is probably a hybrid with C.vernus. This is not mentioned in 'The Crocus' (1982). The plants I grow as 'Ruby Giant' (if they are this form) are certainly  very different in shape  to the plants I grow as plain C. tommasinianus (which they probably are). The former are much more goblet shaped.

 

[Thomas Huber]

Luit and Martin, thanks for the research about the name "Whitewell Purple".

Yesterday I took all the books I have and had a look for a detailed description about both tommies.
But it is as Luit mentions: Impossible to get a clear answer - 2 books seem to confirm my opinion, 2 don't 

But then I took the "Checklist of Hyacintes and miscellaneous bulbs" published by the KAVB which
is responsible for registration all the Dutch cultivars. This is the only source, that mentions a "lighter
base" in Ruby Giant which would mean that the first plant top row in Mark's photo is Whitewell Purple and
the second - with the lighter base - is Ruby Giant. The rest are: Roseus, Lilac Beauty, Bobbo, Pictus
and Barr's Purple.

Luit, perhaps you could again ask Johan vS what he thinks.

[Thomas Huber]

Thomas (or others); I am also considering planting autumn flowering crocuses in my lawn, wich is fairly sunny and dry. However, my autumn is much shorter because I live so far north, so the later ones won't be able to make much impact. What would be useful to know is the order in wich the autumn flowering species start to flower.

Staale, Howard has already given some good thoughts, I will try to add some more:
Generally it is not easy to say a species flowers early or not - for example Crocus speciosus: The first in my garden start in August and the last flowers in December. Ian Young has Crocus vallicola and banaticus also starting in August and flowering until December. My advice is to try some corms and wait for the result.

Autumn crocus do NOT start growing after the calendar - if the temperatures fall below a particular temperature they get their start signal.  So I guess, that the plants start growing much earlier for you in the North than for me in Germany.

[mark smyth]

Here are some tommasinianus photos from my hard drive

?
?
Alba
Alba CRO1022
Bobbo
Eric Smith
Lavender Striped
Lilac Beauty
Pictus
var roseus

[Viola]

Crocus thomasinianus in my garden

[Viola]

Pics from Crocus the Türkei

[David Shaw]

Here are some tommasinianus photos from my hard drive

I know that Ian Young grows crocus in his gravel drive, but through tarmac

[mark smyth]

dont make me laugh too hard, it hurts

[tonyg]

Karl - very nice crocus and very good pics.  Thanks!