Crocus March

[Rimmer de Vries]

Finally the sun came out and the soil thawed out. grass is still brown from the deep freeze
 tommie "Ruby Giant" in south facing  woodsy area along the street.
"Goldilocks" in a rockery

in the frame is the small whitish crocus that came as C. olivieri "Lune" a hybrid with C. candidus subflavus from Paul Christian 

sorry for the poorly focused picture.

[Janis Ruksans]

Janis, Crocus chrysanthus Gembos yaila is very nice. Is it pure Chrysanthus or a hybrid?

Difficult to tell. As I wrote before "Gembos yaila is natural breeding station" - there met two species, or better to tell forms of two species which freely hybridises and even seeing typical looking plant you can't be certain - aren't some genes of other species hided. Nowhere else I saw so many hybrids. There are occasional between alexandri and chrysanthus in Greece, some occasional between pulchricolor and chrysanthus in NW Turkey. But on Gembos each plant looks different and hybridisation seem everydays usual occasion. Of course blooming starts with yellows and higher by slope is generally yellow ones, then comes zone of total mix of colours and shades and at each visit there (I was there three times) I spotted something unusual and as last ones (lower by slope) follows blue zone of isauricus looking plants. Not near Ibradi, not near Akseki or further to Beyshekir I saw something similar. Hurry to visit this place - there somerhouse building goes in full speed and soon this beautifull spot will not more exist.

[Janis Ruksans]

It is very strange season - in same time blooms the earliest Crocus korolkowii, here cv. APRICOT which I got from Sjaak (suppose found wild in Tadjikistan)
and such quite late bloomers as Crocus sieberi from Omalos plain
and Crocus heuffelianus cv.'s 'Carpathian Wonder' seedlings (it is first blooming from seeds sawn 3 years ago.
And last entry - the bed of spring Crocus collection yesterday, late afternoon after all those horrible frosts every night. Tonight here we had only minus 6 C. So all must be OK.

[Janis Ruksans]

Very good Crocus vitellinus with black anthers originally collected by Arnis Seisums in Syria
Two gatherings of Crocus caelestis - the first type collection from Erich, another found by Ibrahim, who visited its loxcality a week after myself. I found nothing (it was too early), Ibrahim was more lucky
One of newcomers - Crocus fauseri, collected at locus classicus
Last in this entry - Crocus munzurense from Erich.

[Janis Ruksans]

Now 2 pictures of unusual Crocus antalyensis - white and yellow-blue
Then three Crocus biflorus - the first certainly new one. All from Turkey.

[Janis Ruksans]

One more Crocus biflorus from Turkey
Natural hybrid between Crocus chrysanthus x C. biflorus - not my gathering
Crocus carpetanus collected in Portugal for me by Brian Duncan - famous daffodil breeder
Type Crocus flavus subsp. flavus from Albena, Bulgaria
And some amusing picture of "double" Crocus hittiticus - unfortunately not permanent, only one season pleasure

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Fantastic Crocus, Janis ! 

Here, Crocus heuffelianus "Shockwave" (From Pitcairn) puts on a good show, even after 2 successive snowloads and severe nightfrosts....

[Janis Ruksans]

And last entry (I think) for today
Hybrid between Crocus leichtlinii and C. kerndorfiorum
Then two pictures of Crocus taurii from different locations in E Turkey
And last two are two selections from extremely variable Crocus versicolor - it is first time when I try to grow this species in greenhouse. Although it belongs to most hardy species and very little suffered in last black frost (2 weeks with minus 20-30 C absolutely without snow) for safety (mostly qagainst rodents) I braught my selections to greenhouse.

[de.da.]

WW






(nothing to show... Daniel)

[ArnoldT]

Crocus kosaninii opening in bright early morning sun.

[Armin]

Fantastic Crocus, Janis ! 

Here, Crocus heuffelianus "Shockwave" (From Pitcairn) puts on a good show, even after 2 successive snowloads and severe nightfrosts....

Luc,
nice clumps of C. heuffelianus.
What is the difference between Shockwave and Shamrock? For me images looks like the same clump

[Armin]

...and Crocus heuffelianus cv.'s 'Carpathian Wonder' seedlings (it is first blooming from seeds sawn 3 years ago.

Quite amazing to see the number of color and pattern variation in Carpathian Wonder seedlings.
Are there some you are going to select?

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Luc,
nice clumps of C. heuffelianus.
What is the difference between Shockwave and Shamrock? For me images looks like the same clump

Senior moment, Armin : obviously the name is "Shockwave" - for some reason I called the file Shamrock.... 
So sorry

[Boyed]

Luc,
your heuffelianus 'Shamrock' is very beautiful! What a nice one!

Some crocus vernus Dutch hybrid pix, taken a week before, when I visited country house:

crocus vernus Albiflorus (vigorous form)
crosus vernus 'Nigo Boy'
crocus vernus 'Paulus Potter' (one of my favourite, deep magenta colour, very distinct)

[ielaba2011]

Here  is Crocus carpetanus photo taken last week by a friend in a mountain of central Portugal. There were a lot of them!

Some more pictures in:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=560461187307331&set=a.557466400940143.1073741836.158023274217793&type=3&theater


http://flora-on.pt/#/749N4