Crocus crossing

[Guff]

Seedlings.

[Guff]

Few more seedlings. Always had hoped some white tommies would appear.

[Guff]

Spring 2016, grass bank and seedlings.

[Maggi Young]

You must be pleased with how the banks are coming along, Guff ?

[Guff]

It's getting there Maggi! I'm still tossing seeds on the other half of bank. They do germinate, but I think some of the seeds may be washing away. Probably after sprinkling seeds, I should put down some compost. Did do that one year, have gotten lazy....

It was a bad year for crocus, it was very warm, then a long cold period. Most never opened.

[Guff]

Spring 2019

[Maggi Young]

Hello Guff- welcome  back!  Great to see  how your  crocus  bank looked this  Spring.

[Guff]

Maggi, thanks.

Been tossing seeds on other half of bank every Fall. Had a few flowers pop up, so hopefully many more show this Spring.
 
I dug up maybe 1k crocus seedlings a month ago, that I had in another bed and added them to the other half of grass bank. The bigger seedlings were planted with a screwdriver at the very top of the bank. I had a ton of small bulbs, so I dug another spot, 1 ft wide path and replanted.

This years seed, I decided to use a screwdriver and plant the seeds one by one, 2 1/2 in deep. Took forever to plant a couple thousands seeds this way, just trying to get to flowering size faster. Compost was put down and raked to fill in the screwdriver holes. Still need to plant grass seed. I had to remove a thick layer of moss that killed the grass
.

[Guff]

Just a waiting game now......

Hedge of Tree Peonies planted at top of bank. Very pretty in May.

[Guff]

Update.

[Guff]

Starting to see flowers. Weather is suppose to be 60's this weekend.
Picture is of the second half of grass bank, which I had planted one by one with a screwdriver


Last year was a bad year and I didn't even bother taking any pictures. Most were ruined, by warm spell, then a very long cold chill.

[Armin]

Hi Guff,

it is a pleasure to see the progress of your longterm crocus project!
The image looks quite promising

[Guff]

Armin, thanks.

Each year I see more flowers popping up, from all the seeds that were tossed over the years. I have one last crocus seedling bed that needs to be dug this summer and replanted. Bed was started 5 or so years ago, probably has a couple thousand bulbs.

First picture is where I had dug up a 1 ft or so section to plant all the tiny bulbs.
The main section were planted deeper, just starting to see flowers.

[arisaema]

Please take some close-ups of your favourites! I've been following this thread from the start, I can't believe it's ben 15 years already...

[Guff]

These are crocus that I had bought a long time ago to make crosses with, but it really hasn't gone as planned. Not sure if the pollen is even good, haven't really seen any with dark tip marks from seedlings.

Left to right rows
Michaels Purple (no seeds) and  Tommasinianus Pictus (no seeds)
Tommasinianus Alba (has seeds) and Haarlem Gem (no seeds)
Uklin Strain (only had one seed pod ever)
Tatra Shades (no seeds)