Crocus January 2008

[Ezeiza]

"I use Chempak No.8, 12.5:25:25 NPK."

Hi:

    Please correct me if I'm wrong but years ago we used another Chempak formula that was even higher in potassium and vey little nitrogen.

   


Regards

[Luc Gilgemyn]

I don't live on an island, but the event takes place on an island so the problem is the same   

I'm already planning to visit the Harlow show on March 1st, can't get accross the channel every week 

Tony G., thanks for the biflorus explanation.

[David Nicholson]

"I use Chempak No.8, 12.5:25:25 NPK."

Hi:

    Please correct me if I'm wrong but years ago we used another Chempak formula that was even higher in potassium and vey little nitrogen.

Chempak No. 4 is a  high Potash feed but I don't know the NPK numbers.

[Maggi Young]

Chempak No. 4 == N.P.K. 15 - 15 - 30

[I.S.]

 Hi. to everybody
It is very pleasant to see all thesee nice crocus.

Dominique! I think your C. pestalozzae is not right. It looks more as a C. sieberi to me. My C. pestalozzae has very long and thiny leaves which started to grow last month and not flowered yet.

For black anthers of biflorus, I think this is not a main feature for many ssp. of biflorus. For example,
C. biflorus. crewei, isauricus, nubigena, pseudonubige, and melantherus can have black or yellow anthers.  I hope to have chance to see them on the wild next month.

[Maggi Young]

Good luck for your trip, Ibrahim... we hope you see lots, too, then you can show us the photos!

[Ezeiza]

Hi Maggi:

             Thanks, that is right, that was nr. 4. It looked like blue sugar in a ligth blue paper packing.

Regards.

[Maggi Young]

It looked like blue sugar in a light blue paper packing.

Oh, Alberto, I will be most careful if I take coffee at your house!!

[tonyg]

"Besides 26 Feb is a bit late unless winter decides to turn up down here.  Most crocus will be well over by then"
Tony, that C. korolkowii is the first of our early flowering crocus to even give a hint of perfoming! The rate that they are going this year we will be enjoying them in August

I think the RHS should be holding the trials / event in Dunblane then - they don't call Surrey the Banana Belt for nothing!  .... I'll be glad to be wrong though

[Ezeiza]

Dear Maggi:
                That was many years ago. Sulphate of potash, that we have been using 1980, doesn't look like sugar at all!


Regards

[mark smyth]

Tony on your bigger island you can drive to an event. Do you think the RHS is excluding the working class by holding all events during the week.

I was hoping for a good show of Crocus for a display table in my garden during our snowdrop day. I had a great display for our meeting last Saturday. Despite two signs reading "Please do not touch the flowers or lift the pots" people continue to do so. Why do ole dolls swing hand bags around flowers or set them down between the pots grrrr

[tonyg]

Mark - I dunno why you fink I'm not working class

Actually I like midweek events, my working class work is busiest at weekends and if I'm not working its all kidstuff!  The family diary is so full that I don't look like making it to any AGS shows this spring

[Lesley Cox]

Despite two signs reading "Please do not touch the flowers or lift the pots" people continue to do so. Why do ole dolls swing hand bags around flowers or set them down between the pots grrrr

Mark, perhaps you yourself will have to invest in a handbag and swing it to good effect around those who swing theirs near your flowers and pots. A NZ rugby player, very tough and macho, used a very fetching little pink leather number in a pub last year, to defend a lady who was getting unwanted attention from someone else. Worked a treat and made him famous for reasons other than his playing skills. Of course our Australian friends used the incident to computer-generate a full All Black team, complete with pink handbags, performing a haka before a big match. But we know how to laugh at ourselves - we've had to do it so often.

[tonyg]

Just in case you were thinking that I had given up actually growing crocuses here are a few that are in flower here now.  (I have posted so many before that I am always in danger of repeating myself!)

Crocus cyprius - wonderfully intense golden throat.
Crocus sieberi ssp sieberi - the first of many
Crocus danfordiae (orange/yellow form) - and a shot with Crocus chrysanthus to show just how small C danfordiae is.
Crocus biflorus ssp ?isauricus - nice lilac form
Crocus biflorus ssp unknown - why do the cutworms always go for the best ones first
Crocus biflorus melantherus - spring flowering form
I will try and get another shot of the ssp melantherus when the flower has aged and we can see if the anthers still look as dark.

[Maggi Young]

I have posted so many before that I am always in danger of repeating myself!)

Tony, they are so lovely they can bear repeating! Anyway, lots of folks only read the current pages and do not use the search facility to go through either this forum or the archived version so they would be seeing anyting for the first time