Crocus March 2009

[johnw]

ask and you receive

I ask! With thanks.

johnw

[Gerry Webster]

another identification please : this bulb was commercialised by Dix as Crocus candidus ssp. subflavus, but this name is not included on the alpine house website http://www.thealpinehouse.fsnet.co.uk/crocus%20pages/
nevertheless, I think that the very wide leaves are very specific : isn't it ?

From memory - Crocus candidus var subflavus = Crocus olivieri.  It shares the few broad leaves and some other key features of Crocus olivieri.  The name you have has been attached to a plant in commerce not a wild specimen.  It is not a subspecies.  Ibrahim posted a pic of wild C candidus last year which was a pale orange but not the vivid yellow of this plant.
edit - I now see Gerry has answered in the same vein

I got my info from the RHS database. According to BM, these plants are "probably forms or hybrids  of C. olivieri". Relying on my memory of a plant grown long ago,  I'm inclined to think the latter.

[tonyg]

Simon, your C. olivieri looks very much like C. flavus!

Spot on Thomas - looks like the same plant I saw at Harlow AGS Show on Saturday also labelled as C olivieri but clearly Crocus flavus.  (I did not click the pic to see it properly first time )

[Sinchets]

Simon, your C. olivieri looks very much like C. flavus!

Thanks Thomas that'd be about right- fetching Crocus flavus all the way across Europe to an area which has Crocus flavus by the field load  
Maybe we need to label them all like the Dutch packets you see in garden centres 'Specie Crocus- Orange'

[Thomas Huber]

Many crocus are out, but the sun wasn't strong enough to open them, so I only have a few to show:
- chrysanthus with black anthers
- michelsonii Odissey
- angustifolius, welcoming everybody at a friends house door

[Sinchets]

The world of bulbs is certainly a lucky dip-reminds me of buying cheap tins of food where the labels have come off. Crocus 'Baked Beans' when i thought i had Crocus 'Pineapple Slices'  

[tonyg]

Unfortunately you rarely open the bean tin to find caviar

[Sinchets]

Unfortunately you rarely open the bean tin to find caviar

Does that explain why you don't see Crocus flavus offered for sale much- it's the 'universal lubricant' for selling a range of similar species. I guess some people are better at shaking the tin and hearing the beans.

[udo]

some new flowers today:
Crocus x veluchensis 'Rainbowgold',a cross between veluchensis and cvijicii
          michelsonii from Iran
          sieheanus
          sieberi ssp.nivalis
          x reticulatus, ( reticulatus x angustifolius)
          aerius, possibly a hybrid

[udo]

and more:
Crocus biflorus ssp.crewei
             ``          nubigena , thanks Thomas
             ``          Belpinar Gec
             ``          Goktepe
           bornmuelleri
           abantensis

[tonyg]

Dirk
Put me on the waiting list for the  species and the bornmulleri!  All those you have posted are superb

[Maggi Young]

Goodness me, no shortage of insect pollinators at Dirk's crocus, is there?  Makes a change from hearing about those "Snowdrop Lunches" to see a really busy Crocus Lunch 

[tonyg]

Yes!  I meant to ask Dirk if he keeps bees

[mark smyth]

 ... and who says bees are getting rare!

[tonyg]

In flower now.
Various forms of Crocus cvijcii.
Two different seedlings of Crocus corsicus - no yellow in the throat.
Crocus vernus National Park - one of Janis's finest