Crocus October 2014

[Maggi Young]

Lovely variations, Zhirair.
 I hope you are well?

[Boyed]

When I started growing crocuses many years ago, I obtained different species and varieties of spring and autumn blooming crocuses. In few years after testing many, I came to a conclusison that, in regards to autumn crocuses, I should stop in crocus speciosus as, to my opinion, it is the most beautiful and showy crocus for garden decoration puposes. So I put an aim to collect crocus speciosus different variations and its nice cultivars as well as to make selections from wild. Currently, I have most of the cv-s except few, which I hope to obtain in near future. It is the peak blooming in the country garden and I would like to show some.

Crocus speciosus 'Aino'
Crocus speciosus 'Oxonian'

[Boyed]

Thank you, Maggi. I am well. Took a holiday to plant autumn bulbs, spend most of the time in the country. There is a lot to do and I am bit concerned about the scope of the work. Just came back to th town for few days and wold like to share some photos in the forum.

Few comparison pictures of the cv-s 'Aino' (left) and 'Oxonian' (right). Very often 'Aino' is described as improved 'Oxonian', but frankly speaking, I don't understand what is improved. It is true, 'Aino' has a bit stronger tube, but in other aspects, in my opinion, 'Aino' can't compete with 'Oxonian' by beauty, sizes, intensity of colour and other decorative features. 'Oxonian' is special!!!

[Boyed]

Crocus speciosus 'Cassiope', has impressive large blooms

[Boyed]

Crocus speciosus 'Artabir', obtained from Augis Dambrauskas.
Has prominant vains, but it is not very large as Janis describes (see the comparison picture with 'Cassiope' on the left (last photo)). So having some doubts about its being true to name I acquired some corms of it from Janis this year to see how Janis' one looks like and compare it with Augis' one. 'Artabir' from Janais is not yet in bloom, but shows noses. So in few days it will be clear.

[Boyed]

Crocus speciosus 'Pollux'
One of my favourites, has delicate sky blue-lavender colour and very catchy long styles. By its style it somewhat resembles crocus speciosus 'Aitchinsonii' grown by Thomas Huber. So, I will kindly ask Thomas to carefully study it with his professional eye to reveal the differences.

[Maggi Young]

When we see these variations of C. speciosus shown together it is easy to understand your love of this crocus - indeed it is exceptionally beautiful.

[Boyed]

Crocus speciosus Albus
Crocus speciosus 'Cloudy Sky' (my selection, bi-colour, very large and vigorous, floriferous with strong tubes)
Crocus pulchellus 'Zephyr' (combines well with 'Cloudy Sky')

[Boyed]

comparison pictures ('Zephyr' and 'Cloudy Sky')
Zephyr seedlings (turned out crocus pulchellus Albus and Zephyr-like types inferior to 'Zephyr') and crocus kotschyanus in the background

[Boyed]

Some other crocuses

crocus niveus (blue form)
crocus serotinus salzmanii from Tony
crocus pallasii (Turkish form)

[Pauli]

An outstandig collection! Do not stop to Show us the Variation in C. speciosus!

[YT]

A nice bunch of crocus collection, Boyed

YT
Beautiful plants expertly grown 

Thank you, art600

My opinion exactly!
And thank you, once more Tatsuo, for posting to the Archibald  pages as a record  Greatly appreciated!

Thank you and that is of course my pleasure, Maggi

Very nice crocus Yt and Ruben!
4. Crocus tournefortii AH.0002
Poul

Thank you Poul. Your paler coloured tournefortii looks nice, too

[YT]

Crocus hadriaticus: JJA 345.620. No data. (From various forms from S Greece.)

It's the first flower from seed

[Boyed]

Thank you, Herbet and Yamanaka.
There are a lot to open, will photograph and show in couple of days, again when I am back from the country.

[Thomas Huber]

Crocus speciosus 'Pollux'
One of my favourites, has delicate sky blue-lavender colour and very catchy long styles. By its style it somewhat resembles crocus speciosus 'Aitchinsonii' grown by Thomas Huber. So, I will kindly ask Thomas to carefully study it with his professional eye to reveal the differences.

Hi Zhirair.

A really lovely collection of Crocus speciosus you have. Like you I also find this species among the best in autumn !

The plant that I have here as Aichinsonii is just coming into flower while Oxonian and Aino - which are flowering now with your Poolux -  are long over. Furthermore my plants seem to have a brighter flowerbase, as far as I can judge from your photo of Pollux, so I don't think they are the same, even if the style looks the same... don't you have 'my' Aichinsonii anymore - I could send you some corms for comparision if you want.

I'm not sure if anybody can judge these old speciosus cultivars as true or not - I have received so many named cultivars from different sources and seldom they looked alike. Old photos or paintings from the original plants (Artabir registered in 1896, Aichinsonii in 1891!) I have never seen and even Johann van Scheepen from the KAVB doesn't have reliable material for comparision when we discussed about speciosus cultivars some years ago. I guess that only Oxonian (1945 registered) is true.

Meanwhile I simply enjoy the good forms of these wonderful plants that I have obtained and selected - no matter what their name is. Especially your selections do make a very good show    but from your photos Cassiope and Aino do look very alike....

Some years ago I found a plant with short but very strong flower tubes and dark veined petals. The tubes still stand strong when the flower is already withered.... ! I don't know what it is, but this plant must have been in cultivation in Holland from where I received it... Together with Artabir from Augis and Oxonian this is one of my favourites.