Crocus April

[Janis Ruksans]

It is the 1-st of April, so time to start new topic. 1st April is day of jokes and looking outside it seems that there is real joke, too. All the day is snowing and started snowstorm. Road to my nursery was almost closed but I succeed to pass it. It was coldest March in last 50 years, but history shows that in 1942 March was even in average 5 degrees colder than in 2013. We had colder springs once in early fifties and once in early sixties last century. And in thirties there were 80 cm of snow in my district even 18th of April...  So nothing special. But very tedious
So on pictures you can see my house today. I suppose that my bees are not happy, too for so long winter sleep. Greenhouses are enclosed in snow walls, but inside all looks quite good. In so dull weather crocus flowers are closed, so good occasion to show some varieties from side view and in this entry excellent form, of Crocus angustifolius

[Janis Ruksans]

Quite often I'm questioned how to separate Crocus x sieberi HUBERT EDELSTEN from it's mutation GEORGE, selected by famous Dutch breeder Willem van Eeden. On this picture you clearly can see that GEORGE (front two rows) blooms later than HUBERT EDELSTEN (back rows).

Another picture of Crocus sieberi from Omalos is more curiosity. The anthers here not separatyed from petals (more precisely during organogenesis joined together) forming such unusual shape of flower.

[Janis Ruksans]

And last entry for today - variation in Crocus olivieri subsp. balansae. Those pictures show you how variable it can be. Earlier I showed olivieri with many branched stigma collected between type subsp. plants. They all grew on small spot - may be 2-3 hundred square meters large, but one of from collected 5 corms looks as subsp. balansae (I showed it in March).
Usually subsp. balansae is regarded as coloured dark on back. But not always it is so (see 1st picture). As you can judge by back's of petals pictured today amount of brown and shape can varie a lot. Very dramatically looks cv. CHOCOLATE SOLDIER - by colour typical subsp. balansae, but last year all flowers had only 6-branched stigmas as in type subspecies. Flowers didn't open yet, so I couldn't check this feature this year, but on label I striped out word "balansae".

[Gerhard Raschun]

cv. CHOCOLATE SOLDIER => fine clone !

Today I had very little time to make some photos in the garden: could pay off to select some clones of Crocus exiguus .....

[pehe]

I found these Crocus tommasinianus in my garden yesterday. They are very pretty, but I am quite sure they are virused. What do the experts say?
On the other hand they look somewhat like Hubert Edelsten, which grow quite close. Does anyone know if tommasinianus could make a hybrid with Hubert Edelsten?

Poul

[Armin]

Janis,
like the C. angustifolius. it is nicely marked
Unfortunately another species which dislikes my garden conditions.

Gerhard,
some very nice forms of C. exiguus. Usually they flower more violet in nature, right?
Where do this nice forms come from? Your own breeding results?

Pehe,
I'm not a virus expert nor specialist for crosses.
But the crocus are nice - I wouldn't throw them into the bin. Maybe they are a cross with some C. vernus hybrids ?
I would suppose it is more probable then a cross with a C. sieberi hybrid which is considered to be sterile.

[Janis Ruksans]

Today I had very little time to make some photos in the garden: could pay off to select some clones of Crocus exiguus .....

Gerhard,
Name Crocus exiguus isn't accepted! - See Kew world checklist! Correct name which must be used is Crocus heuffelianus subsp. heuffelianus
Most of specimens in your entry looks as nice white form of Crocus heuffelianus.

[Janis Ruksans]

Dear Forumists,
From today you can see my home-page on  http://rarebulbs.lv - it opens on Internet Explorer, but still not on Google search (I don't know - why). There you can find all my catalogue and 99% of items have pictures attached. There is GARDEN NEWS topic where you can print your questions and I will try to reply as soon as possible as I will inform about news from my garden and collection. Arriving of young generation gives me more time and more advanced technologies.
Janis

[Lina Hesseling]

 Janis, congratulations on your web-site. It looks great.

Sound very nice to have a step-daughter to help you with your many tasks in your nursery.

Lina.

[pehe]

Janis, congratulations! Your website works very well and looks great, the only problem with all those lovely pictures is that I want to buy it all.....

Poul

[Leena]

. Greenhouses are enclosed in snow walls, but inside all looks quite good.

Do you have heating inside the greenhouse?

Congratulations on the new website
I have some of your Corydalis solida cultivars and like them very much ( if only the snow would melt also here).

[Janis Ruksans]

My greenhouses are polytunnels with two layers of polyethilene film (distance ~ 7 cm) without any heating.

[Gerhard Raschun]

Gerhard,
Name Crocus exiguus isn't accepted! - See Kew world checklist! Correct name which must be used is Crocus heuffelianus subsp. heuffelianus
Most of specimens in your entry looks as nice white form of Crocus heuffelianus.

Dear Janis,
there are reasons while I have labelled it Cr. exiguus ! Gregor Dietrich has described in his bachelor work 2002 that there are great differents between eastern Cr. heuffelianus ( eastern Hungary, eastern Slovakia, Ukraine to the Northern Carpathians ) and the western -invalid- `Cr. exiguus` ( of the Eastern Carpathians on the Balkan Peninsula -Albania to the south- to the southeastern Alps ). While eastern Cr. heuffelianus is diploid ( n=x=5, 2n=10 ), the western Cr. exiguus is probably influenced by Cr. albiflorus and [ 2n=18 (n=x+y+1=10, 2n=20)] allotetraploid (amphidiploid). There are also morphological differents in the measure of the leaves and the time of leave and bloom appearence.

I'm certainly not a fan of cluttered redescriptions of species, a "good" species should be clearly identifiable in the field , without the aid of laboratory and statistical analyzes. So the main reason for us gardeners is, that western Cr. exiguus is a complete other ecological type with other habitat requirements: It would never get outside of spares forests in rather low altitude. So if I bename it with in your eyes ( and taxonomists) an accepted name, it would lose the information about origin and growing requirements, most important for me - and other - as gardenener .

Dear Armin,
 I know great populations in Italy, Slowenia and the eastern Adriatic coast along in Croatia , with all possible color and sign combinations. You are right, more common are darker flowers, but I have shown no dark clones, in order not to be bored. Croci are only a small part of my botanic interests, and it has required  years , selected according to personal taste, carry and select clones together for my own poor collection.

 

[Janis Ruksans]

Dear Janis,
there are reasons while I have labelled it Cr. exiguus !

I can agree with you. I never saw "exiguus" in wild and never cultivated it, so my opinion was based on literature data available for me. When I looked on pictures in my mind came opinion that it could be albiflorus.

[Janis Ruksans]

Few selections of Crocus sieberi from Crete (Omalos plain) and my cultivar 'Cretan Snow'