Crocus March 2014

[Ross Barbour]

Crocus biflorus ssp weldenii 'Fairy' .... and it looks like the plant I have grown under this name 

Your a star Tony, many thanks.

[Lesley Cox]

When I had a crocus named as biflorus ssp weldenii 'Fairy' some years ago, from Van Tubergens in Holland, the flowers were white with a greyish tinge on the outside. Those in your picture look pale lilac Ross. Any comment from anyone?

Those mass plantings are really spectacular and so lovely.

[Thomas Huber]

Lesley, when I received my Fairy from Holland they also were white with some grey,
but in the next year they had the soft blue colour you see on Pehe's and Ross' photo.
I have often noticed this in Dutch plants, maybe its due to their growing method....
perhaps anybody from the 'scene' can tell us more details....

Also the intensity of the blue is variable, darker when the flowers are young
and fading when getting older....

[Rimmer de Vries]

Crocus veluchensis JJA 354.002 woodland ex Serbia, Kosovo,
first time blooming from 10 seeds started in January 2008- only one to make it this far.
it has been in a deep cool cold frame for 6 years.

is this identified correctly?
it does not look like the forms on Tony's Crocus Pages
is this C. vernus?
or a hybrid of veluchensis x vernus ?

[Ross Barbour]

some more I have grown that I hope are named correctly

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks for that Thomas. I haven't had it for a long time but I always remember it as greyish rather than the soft lavender shade. I think it stayed that colour. I would have imported it way back in the late 1960s probably.

The C. olivieri ssp balansae 'Zwanenburg' is lovely and that is one I had from Marcus a few years ago. It is still with me, happily. But Ross, do you have this one? I am conscious of some responsibility, as my friend Otto who phoned from Australia last night, says the few people there who had it, have now lost it. Mine's doing well and has increased from 1 to abut 10 in all. Marcus had it from Alan Edwards who had it from Primrose Warburg who had it from Bowles' own garden.

[Ross Barbour]

Lesley,

Love the 'Chocolate Soldier', amazing.

My C. olivieri ssp balansae 'Zwanenburg' came from a Dutch man, as have quite a few of my new bulbs, so I am very interested to see if they are what they are suppose to be. Do you think my C. olivieri ssp balansae 'Zwanenburg' looks correct?

[Maggi Young]

Ross,  have a look at the plant  shown in the Connoiseur Collection - http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=1331.msg33333#msg33333   and the Crocus Pages, of course:
http://www.srgc.org.uk/genera/logdir/2010Mar281269808828Crocus_olivieri_balansae.pdf  and  earlier in this thread, Rimmer has a pic of his plants : http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=11493.msg298481#msg298481 - you'll see that yours looks just fine.

[Ross Barbour]

oooo, just the job, many thanks Maggi 

[Rimmer de Vries]

Crocus veluchensis JJA 354.002 woodland ex Serbia, Kosovo,
is this identified correctly?

Patience grasshopper!
with the tepals open it looks ok, i think?

[Rimmer de Vries]

Crocus biflorus isauricus JJA 034.1250
seed started Jan 2008
this is a very variable seed lot

[pehe]

Lesley, when I received my Fairy from Holland they also were white with some grey,
but in the next year they had the soft blue colour you see on Pehe's and Ross' photo.
I have often noticed this in Dutch plants, maybe its due to their growing method....
perhaps anybody from the 'scene' can tell us more details....

Also the intensity of the blue is variable, darker when the flowers are young
and fading when getting older....

I have had the same experience. When I received a few bulbs about 12 years ago they were more grey than blue, but have gradually turned more blue. Because of that I was in doubt that it was biflorus weldenii Fairy. But after Thomas' explanation I am quite sure that it is Fairy.
It is a very good garden crocus.

Poul

[Janis Ruksans]

Patience grasshopper!
with the tepals open it looks ok, i think?

Quite doubtful. Confused by "v" mark on top of petals. No one of mine acquisitions of veluchensis has such - just checked pictures made wild in Macedonia last summer - no one has such mark. It is more characteristic to some forms of vernus/heuffelianus/scepusiensis. I really have one stock got as veluchensis from Jim looking as this one pictured by you, but I put large "?" mark at its name.
Janis

[Rimmer de Vries]

Quite doubtful. Confused by "v" mark on top of petals. No one of mine acquisitions of veluchensis has such - just checked pictures made wild in Macedonia last summer - no one has such mark. It is more characteristic to some forms of vernus/heuffelianus/scepusiensis. I really have one stock got as veluchensis from Jim looking as this one pictured by you, but I put large "?" mark at its name.
Janis

Thanks, i should have stuck with my initial impressions of a vernus type.

with 2 days above freezing in a row the snow is rapidly melting and things are popping up quickly!

[Tony Willis]

Rimmer

as you know I thought it was a vernus but here is a Crocus sieberi  with a 'v' shaped marking from Mt Parnassus where it is a very mixed population of sieberi/veluchensis