Crocus September 2009

[Thomas Huber]

  Yes, the Crocus season started in Neustadt 

03 - 10 days ago the first Crocus was in flower, received as speciosus Cassiope,
      but I'm not sure (as usual with speciosus cultivars  ) if it is correct. In every case it is a beauty and very early.
27+29 - First time flowering in my garden after many years of searching it: Crocus kotschyanus Albus, the true white form.
00 - A wonderful dark form of Crocus medius, the true wild form
31 - C. banaticus Albus, this year performing better than the blue form which I have nearly completely lost 
20 - C. mathewii, hiding in the shade
34 - C. vallicola from the HKEP collection

[Gerry Webster]

All superb Thomas. I particularly like C. banaticus 'Albus'

[mark smyth]

Overnight a hadriaticus in my greenhouse pushed a flower up and this morning it was open

[Janis Ruksans]

A lot of crocuses now start blooming. Today was full sun and first blooms of C. gilanicus opened. Started blooming cross between gilanicus and autranii, but it looks more than autranii only at base from somewhere appeared yellow spots - possibly some bee brought pollen from suworowianus? But mother plant was gilanicus. Possibly yellow spots are hided in genotype of autranii or gilanicus? Another nice surprise was when large pot labeled as gilanicus seedlings bloomed for the first time as... autranii. Not a bad surprise although at present I would be more pleased for gilanicus which something suffered last winter. But oh, my granddaughters, who cleaned seeds and put label in wrong box. Still blooms C. speciosus from Tschatir Dag in Crimea. Beautifully blooms Crocus labeled as C. kotschyanus hakkariensis but I'm something doubtful about correct naming. Is it really hakkariensis? And as last for today C. suworowianus var. lilacinus. Started to bloom first cancellatus, banaticus 'First Snow' and few others, but it is only start. A lot of pots are with white sharp shoots at top.
Janis

[Lesley Cox]

Lovely pictures Thomas and very good to see C. medius with no sign of the virus which seem present in all commercial stocks.

[Ragged Robin]

A feast for the eyes Janis, wonderful crocus 

[Armin]

Overnight a hadriaticus in my greenhouse pushed a flower up and this morning it was open

Mark,
I made a similar observation with a C. speciosus "Aino".
Over night a flower stem poked through ground and growed ~90mm .
Unfortunate the flower bud did not open today as we had fog until noon and the afternoon remained dull.

Thomas and Janis,
wunderful pictures, a real delight for the enthusiasts

[Gerry Webster]

Lovely pictures Thomas and very good to see C. medius with no sign of the virus which seem present in all commercial stocks.

I believe there is a stock in commerce of  C. medius morphologically similar to Thomas' plant (i.e., different to the common 'Dutch' form) which goes under the cultivar name of 'Millesimo' but I don't know who supplies it. Maybe Thomas or Tony know? The Crocus Group has distributed seed of this 'wild' form from relatively recent collections made by David Stephens  &  Mike Salmon used to distribute similar plants from collections he made  with Peter Bird. I have plants derived from both sources, though no sign of growth yet. The ordinary, commercial form of C. medius is an intriguing plant & I would love to know something about its origin.

[tonyg]

Beautiful Janis and Thomas!
Janis - the Crocus gilanicus that I grow (many generations of seed from original Per Wendelbo collection) has quite narrow petals, with slight purple tinge at the tips.  Yours seem perhaps larger flowers, more rounded.  How much variation is there in the plants you grow?  Crocus gilanicus sets seed here most years.  Is Crocus autraniias generous?   I hope so.
The doubtful Crocus kotschyanus ssp hakkariensis is very atttractive.  What makes you doubt?  (I have never seen it so I cannot have an opinion!)

[I.S.]

Very nice pictures from everybody  

Janis, What about the throat of your subsp. hakkariensis? That we can not see from pictures.
This subspecies should has clearly pubescent throat while the subsp. suworowianus and subsp. cappadocicus have glabrous throat.

Ibrahim

[Anthony Darby]

I have Cc. serotinus clusii and ochroleucus open in the bulb house.

[Janis Ruksans]

Very nice pictures from everybody  

Janis, What about the throat of your subsp. hakkariensis? That we can not see from pictures.
This subspecies should has clearly pubescent throat while the subsp. suworowianus and subsp. cappadocicus have glabrous throat.

Ibrahim

Yes Ibrahim and Tony,
Just the throat gives me doubt about correct naming of hakkariensis. There are only few hairs in it's throat and it more looks glabrous although the petal form looks as can be judged from description. Those are seedlings from original plant got as Crocus sp. from Turkey. Mother plant still not started blooming.
Janis

[Janis Ruksans]

Beautiful Janis and Thomas!
Janis - the Crocus gilanicus that I grow (many generations of seed from original Per Wendelbo collection) has quite narrow petals, with slight purple tinge at the tips.  Yours seem perhaps larger flowers, more rounded.  How much variation is there in the plants you grow?  Crocus gilanicus sets seed here most years.  Is Crocus autraniias generous?   I hope so.
The doubtful Crocus kotschyanus ssp hakkariensis is very atttractive.  What makes you doubt?  (I have never seen it so I cannot have an opinion!)

Now I have several stocks of gilanicus, all with reported origin but grown from seeds or received as small corms. C. gilanicus suffered from frost last winter and I'm very happy seeing blooming some. Didn't even hope. By everything plant is true and this one is the best stock. Flowers are not large but with good shape of petals, all features well correspond with description of species.
C. autranii is raised up from seeds which this species set quite well if you handpollinate them (I try to pollinate each flower). Splitting of corm in two is occasional. It isn't the hardiest of species, but quite good grower. I sold 10 corms of it this autumn - the maximum what I had for sell, but surprise with seedlings (see my earlier entry) will allow to offer it next season, too.
Janis

[jc (pmm)]

These are Amazing beauties and by the way great photos.

[dominique]

Hi Anthony
Your ochroleucus looks better tournefortii albus for me. Too early for ochroleucus and too big flower, too much leaves at anthesis. What Thomas think about ? thanks for the pics of all
Dom

I have Cc. serotinus clusii and ochroleucus open in the bulb house.