Crocus January 2014

[Janis Ruksans]

This beautiful crocus was described quite recently by Turkish botanist Osman Erol & Co but originally it was discovered much earlier and I got some seeds of "may be autumn blooming nubigena" - so early it was blooming that when was found - it was with almost mature seed capsules whilst other crocuses there were in flowers.

I collected one corm of it during search for Galanthus trojanus during trip together with galanthophile Colin. I'm not grower of snowdrops, so I was interested in other plants and there I saw the first C. candidus blooming in the wild. But between all others I collected one corm without flowers and with annulate tunics. It was collected only some 500 m from locus classicus of C. demirizianus so undoubtedly belongs to this species. Note the very long basal lobes of its anthers, very different from other "nubigenas". Other feature which you can't see now is very erect leaves.

In 2012 I again visited locality and collected some more corms, so after year or two will be possible to judge about its variability. I hope to blooming of seedlings later this spring or at least next year, too. C. demirizianus is one of real new species described by Turkish botanists.

[Tony Willis]

three more in flower at the moment

Crocus nevadensis in two forms

Crocus biflorus crewii

Crocus biflorus ssp

[Janis Ruksans]

This one is another crocus  which we found searching for C. yataganensis. Most likely it is C. caricus, but name isn't checked. May be another from this group. Was collected after dramatic drive up by narrow dirty road to mountain top up to reaching snow. It was growing on stony meadow.

[Janis Ruksans]

I'm still picturing crocuses in my office under lamp light. This one I got from Jim Archibald as Č. rcrewei aff. buff seeds". I'm quite doubtfull about epithet "crerwei" but I still didn't tried to identify it. I don't know where it originally was collected but it is very nice.

[Janis Ruksans]

This one I collected as Crocus crewei. Stock is quite variable - there are plants with stipled (rare) and striped back of petals but all invariably has black anthers, Stock was collected near Denizli.

[Janis Ruksans]

Outside started snowing. May be I will bring inside few pots tomorrow but most likely those are last pictures from this "spring in mid-winter". In this case those are crocuses received as C. adamii from Christopher who collected them in Bulgaria, but true adamii is growing only in Eastern part of Caucasus together with some close species from Turkey and Iran. Bulgarian plants geographically is most close to C. adamioides but I still didn't compare both stocks.

[Maggi Young]

I find the crocus with the black anthers to be very beautiful but that Archibald  "crewei" is amazing  - the outer markings are fabulous and the richly coloured throat is  a good counterpoint.  Wonderful, Janis, you are delighting us with these!

[Steve Garvie]

A truly amazing collection of mouth-watering crocuses!!!

[Cyril L]

I agree, a fantastic show of early flowering crocus.  I especially like the ones with black anthers.

[Mark Griffiths]

truly stunning, thanks all for sharing!

[Tony Willis]

Crocus biflorus ssp crewii,a speckled form similar to that shown by Janis

Crocus cyprius four different forms

[Maggi Young]

Crocus biflorus ssp crewii,a speckled form similar to that shown by Janis

Crocus cyprius four different forms

 'small but perfectly formed ' comes to mind.....

[krisderaeymaeker]

Crocus biflorus ssp crewii,a speckled form similar to that shown by Janis
Crocus cyprius four different forms

Great to see them like that Tony . Perfectly grown ....

[Yann]

Crocus corsicus
Crocus korolkowii

[krisderaeymaeker]

Crocus hartmannianus is extremely rare endemic from Cyprus. I got some corms under this name from famous Crocus lover, but all specimens were with yellow anthers although they must be blackish. Of course between species with black colour in anthers plain yellow anthers you can find in most populations, but I wanted typical plants. And last autumn I got a pair of corms which now blooms with me. I hardly hope that they will survive coming colds.

Here they are flowering to Janis. They have some blackish anthers to .