Eastern Crete - colourful springflowers in late April/beginning of May

[Gerdk]

Fortunately Cliff Booker visited the western part of the island - so although some images repeat some plants from his journey I hope the following pics will be a good addition to his beautiful show.
I stayed in Makrigialos at the southeast coast and made excursions mainly to the eastern end of Crete with a single  western side-trip to the Lassithi plateau.
Here we go

1. Makrigialos harbour
2.- 4. Papaver -  Chrysanthemum - Anchusa
5. Pallenis spinosa (syn. Asteriscus spinosa)
6. + 7. Lavatera bryonifolia
8. + 9. Glaucidum

Gerd

[Gerdk]

Part 2

1. Sitia - at the north-east coast
2. - 5. Ebenus cretica - covering the hillsides
6. - 8. Gynandriris monophylla
9. Lilium (regale?) - very common in front of houses
10. Muscari spreitzenhoferi

Gerd

[mark smyth]

I believe your yellow Asteraceae is Asteriscus

[Gerdk]

Mark: see synonym

Part 3

1. Another site with Ebenus cretica
2. + 3. Campanula pelviformis
4. Chrysanthemum coronarium
5. + 6. Dracunculus vulgaris
7. Gladiolus italicus
8. Ipomoea species
9. a small Sedum
10. Iris (unguicularis) cretensis in the mountains near Thripti

Gerd

More later

[David Nicholson]

Lovely journey Gerd, thanks for posting the pics.

[Lesley Cox]

Lovely indeed. Especially nice to see the gynandiris and Iris cretensis. I guess the cyclamen with it is C. creticum? I think the Ipomea is I. learii. Many thanks Gerd.

[hadacekf]

Gerd,
Thanks for the great pictures of great plants.

[mark smyth]

Very angry with myself. I could have bought Iris cretensis recently and didnt thinking of how big the I. unguicularis grows. Is it very small?

[Lesley Cox]

Mark, Iris cretensis is not tiny but is MUCH smaller than I. unguicularis. You should certainly buy it if you have the chance. The leaves are shorter and much narrower, very tough, and the whole plant can look a bit scruffy due to the dying leaves which don't come away easily and should be trimmed annually (not pulled) or they tend to look like bits of string attached. But overall, it is a beautiful plant, quite rare in cultivation, and with exquisite markings as you see in Gerd's picture.

[Gerdk]

Lesley, Mark,

The leaves of the plants which I saw had a height of less than 20 cm. Without flowers at first I thought it was some kind of grass.
Lesley,
Does this species flower regurlarly?

Gerd

[ranunculus]

Wonderful images Gerd...you have, of course, made me feel very guilty about the delay in posting the remainder of my images from Spili in the west of the island...I will attempt to post them this week.  Were temperatures as warm during your trip?
Can't wait to see the rest of your beautiful images. Many thanks for posting.

[Lesley Cox]

I no longer have this iris, not for about 20 years in fact and I remember that although it flowered, it never flowered really well but that was probably due to lack of summer heat. I suspect it would like a good ripening of the rhizomes.

I've had seed under this name at least 5 times since I had the plant and twice it was straight I. unguicularis, the other times it was something like chrysographes x forrestii, so a few people seem to be confused about what they have. Sometimes it's listed as a subspecies of I. unguicularis but I prefer to keep the two separate. I'l love to have the genuine thing again.

[Anthony Darby]

Nice to see Iris cretensis flowering. I have two forms of I. unguicularius and both are flowering now. I used to think I had a wierd form that just flowered out of season, but no, these are from different sources and are in different parts of the garden. So much for brightening up my Christmas day!!! Anyone have any cretensis divisions or a reliable winter-flowering form?

[Gerdk]

Lovely indeed. Especially nice to see the gynandiris and Iris cretensis. I guess the cyclamen with it is C. creticum? I think the Ipomea is I. learii. Many thanks Gerd.

Lesley,
Sorry, it was late yesterday. So I didn't recognize the Cyclamen question.
Yes, it is Cyclamen creticum - some pics of this species will follow.

Gerd

[Gerdk]

Thank you altogether for the kind remarks.

Cliff: Weather was fine. Starting with a maximum of more than 30 ° C, but later around 20 ° - 25 ° C. Sometimes windy but not too much. Only one day with some showers (27.04. = Greek Easter Sunday).

Gerd