Crocus March 2009

[tonyg]

Janis
Great to see your beautiful crocus both en masse and close up.
I have grown many clones of Crocus sieberi ssp sieberi for years but I have not noticed variation in the markings from year to year.  Seedlings are different from their parents but this is what we might expect.  The special one  you show 'from your english friend' is lovely, different from Hubert Edelsten as I grow it and I think yours is better!
The malyi x is very nice but how do you tell it is not Crocus vernus ssp vernus?  I have some forms of this which are quite similar. 

[Janis Ruksans]

Janis
Great to see your beautiful crocus both en masse and close up.
I have grown many clones of Crocus sieberi ssp sieberi for years but I have not noticed variation in the markings from year to year.  Seedlings are different from their parents but this is what we might expect.  The special one  you show 'from your english friend' is lovely, different from Hubert Edelsten as I grow it and I think yours is better!
The malyi x is very nice but how do you tell it is not Crocus vernus ssp vernus?  I have some forms of this which are quite similar. 

I got this "Crocus malyi x ?" from Gothenburg BG as seedling from C. malyi seeds - most possibly it is hybrid with some of vernus forms.
Here some more pictures of C. sieberi showing variation in it. In morning I had possibility to picture  0002 in bud.
Janis

[Sinchets]

Number 4 is fantastic- how long from now until sale?

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Stunning C. sieberii Janis !!! 

[Janis Ruksans]

Simon, that is all what I have from this sieberi form.

Just now blooms my real favourite - Crocus aerius. There are 2 pictures of it, I have another one stock with greater variability, but picture isn't so good. Will try to make better tomorrow if there will be sun for some hour.
Can't withstand temptation to show you a pair of really schocking hybrids of reticulata irises raised by Alan McMurtrie in Canada (that is all what I have at moment). Named 'Down to Earth' (McMutrie's) is included in my current catalogue.
Janis

[Sinchets]

Janis the Coffee brown 1 is set to be a winner. By the way I am 39, I can wait for the Crocus sieberi forms to bulk up. We have had our first germinations form the Iris reticulata seeds we bought from Alan 2 years ago- open pollinated I think, but if they are 100th as good as yours it will be worth the wait.

[tonyg]

Janis - the C sieberi Cretan Snow seedlings are interesting.  Some (most?) have a paler colour purple for their markings.  Almost all the C sieberi sieberi that I have seen has dark purple marking.  Is this pale colour unusual?  Or could this be some hybrid influence from other subspecies of C sieberi?  I like them anyway
The Crocus aerius is magnificent.  I have the same form and so far it seems vigorous increasing by corm and seed
I am not sure about the brown Iris ..... I like them blue

[Thomas Huber]

Janis, my Cretan Snow is coloured in standard white - no hint of blue.

[Sinchets]

There are some lovely variations though. We opened the bulb frame today, after removing 20cm of snow, and although my 'Cretan Snow' refused to open it did allow us to marvel at the colour range on the throat- red to orange to yellow, then blue dusting fading into white.

[Janis Ruksans]

Janis - the C sieberi Cretan Snow seedlings are interesting.  Some (most?) have a paler colour purple for their markings.  Almost all the C sieberi sieberi that I have seen has dark purple marking.  Is this pale colour unusual?  Or could this be some hybrid influence from other subspecies of C sieberi?  I like them anyway
The Crocus aerius is magnificent.  I have the same form and so far it seems vigorous increasing by corm and seed
I am not sure about the brown Iris ..... I like them blue

Tony, sieberi Cretan Snow started from single bulb collected by my Czech friend in Crete and sent to me as Crocus sp. At that time it was the single plant of subsp. sieberi and was grown in greenhouse. All other subsp. of sieberi I grew only outside then. Surprisingly - it turned selffertile and set a lot of seeds after handpollination with own pollens. Seedlings for the first time bloomed in spring 2008 and those are on picture.
C. aerius is variable, here attached picture with another stock - KPPS-9301 - it is very variable but all have starry white zone around throat, so characteristic to aerius.
Janis

[mark smyth]

'Cretan Snow'

[Sinchets]

That's just like mine Mark- a stunning colour change all the way up 

[Michael J Campbell]

Crocus cvijicii Cream of Creams ex JR.

[tonyg]

... Cretan Snow started from single bulb collected by my Czech friend in Crete and sent to me as Crocus sp. At that time it was the single plant of subsp. sieberi and was grown in greenhouse. All other subsp. of sieberi I grew only outside then. Surprisingly - it turned selffertile and set a lot of seeds after handpollination with own pollens. Seedlings for the first time bloomed in spring 2008 and those are on picture.
C. aerius is variable, here attached picture with another stock - KPPS-9301 - it is very variable but all have starry white zone around throat, so characteristic to aerius.
Janis

Thanks for the info about Cretan Snow.  The variable collection of Crocus aerius has some superb forms.  I hope one day there will be enough of them for all of us

[Jim McKenney]

Thanks Gunilla for clearing the throat colour of your mystery crocus - so it's C. vernus.

Jim, the flower height was judged simply by noting that Gunilla's plant is flowering on a very short stem, while true 'Herald' is a very large chrysanthus cultivar with a different flower shape. If I say throat colour I mean the OUTER throat-colour of Gunilla's plant. True Herald, as seen in the New-Plantsmen article 3/97 by Johann van Scheepen and in my garden, has a dark outer-throat colour. Your first plant looks like Herald, except the brighter throat, but your second photo surely isn't Herald - perhaps a seedling?

Thanks, Thomas, I'll have to search out the New-Plantsman article and have a look.

My second photo is of stock received in 2007; as you can see, it's a uniform stock. Evidently someone is growing and supplying this as 'Herald'. Perhaps I have another 'Lady Killer' /'Prins Claus' dilemma on my hands.