August 2014 in the Southern Hemisphere

[Hillview croconut]

Hi Mat,

thanks for this information.  Janis is not quite correct. Initially, as one can see from David's article, it was thought that the plants had arisen from a batch of wild collected seed. Thats why there was such interest.
David has good cred. He held a national collection of crocus and was practically Alan's neighbour. It would be great if someone could come up with Alan's description and ďiscussion which he posted in a subsequent AGS journal when he exhibited. I received corms from Alan and I believe all of the corms in the Australia, and I assume NZ originated from  that import.

Cheers, Marcus

[Otto Fauser]

Thanks Marcus , Matt and Lesley for all the information re the parentage of Crocus sieberi "Midas Touch ' . here a photo of it flowering in the garden a few days ago. also one of C. sieberi  ssp.  sieberi

[Otto Fauser]

and some irises : 2 reticulates  and 2 Junos . I nussairiensis alba was a kind gift from Lesley Cox in 2006 ( Lesley tells me she has lost her stock ) , it is still the single bulb and has never set seed . I . nicolai is from seed sown in 2008 ( Michael Kammerlander ).

[Hillview croconut]

Woooow! There's some beauties there. How fantastic is it that we can grow all these things out of doors.

Great stuff Otto!

Cheers, Marcus

[Otto Fauser]

Thanks Marcus for your kind words - I only wish I had a better camera to take better quality photos ,like Jamus for example .
   Just 3 of the many Galanthus species and cultivars in bloom at the moment in my garden .- not new and rare = expensive ,just "Old Faithfuls".and excellent  growers .

[David Stephens]

Can you give any information about the origins/breeding/selection of Crocus 'Midas Touch' please? Otto and I would both like to know. I've thought it was another selection from E A Bowles but from what? and anyway I may be quite wrong about that. It's another good doer here, like 'The Chocolate Soldier' (thank goodness) My spring crocuses are just about finished and it's still so early. I've never know them to start in early winter (May) and be gone by late July.

Lesley - hello, Otto - long time no see, Marcus - I'm still here!.
The full explanation of 'Midas Touch' is in AGS Bulletin Dec 2001 Vol 69 page 510.
I knew that Alan Edwards had the seeds from which it grew from Lyn Bezzant, but I mistakenly thought it was from wild collected seed by Lyn.
As Alan explains in his article the seed was from plants grown by Lyn that had originated from a wild collection seven years earlier.
I well remember his excited phone summons for me to see this 'yellow' sieberi that had just flowered in a variable pot of seedlings.
For years after that it slowly increased till there enough to give to a few friends; now, thanks to good growers like Marcus it is quite widespread.

I am so pleased that you are succeeding with 'Chocolate Soldier' another Crocus that owes it existence to Alan Edwards.
This was obtained from the garden of Primrose Warburg by Alan and myself; there were only a couple of corms so I wisely left it to Alan to grow them on.
'Heff' Warburg, Primrose's husband and professor of Botany at Oxford University was a great Croconut and he got the originals from Bowles.

David

[Hillview croconut]

Hi David,

Great to hear from you and to get your take on Midas Touch. Thank you for the reference.  I knew I had seen Alan's piece but couldn't pull the details out of my memory.

Enjoyed your recent article in Frit group journal.

Cheers,  Marcus

[Hillview croconut]

PS

I received some absolute gems from Alan in those early years,  including:
Crocus tommasinianus Bobbo, Pictus and a beautiful claret one possibly from Oliver Wyatt, nudiflorus white form exJoy Hulme, corsicus with lemon exterior, chrysanthus Sunspot. And probably more!

[Hillview croconut]

Few more crocus from Hill View:

Crocus biflorus ssp pulchricolor - seed collection originally from Ulu Dag. One of them is a bit chewed.
Crocus etruscus Rosalind - Is it a sport of Zwanenburg?
Crocus chrysanthus "Herald" - interesting variety. Very fertile.
Crocus versicolour Cloth of Silver or is Picturartus?

Cheers, Marcus

[Lesley Cox]

15 to 21 degsC over recent week or so but last night a good snowfall, the first we've had this year so a bit of a shock to the system here in the far south of NZ. There's been more further north in the "proper" winter. We're just about in spring mode now until this..... about 12cms on our lawns.

Second picture is of camellias just about to burst open. I'd planned to be planting Iris ensata forms under them today!
Third is of the pear tree, 'Doyenne du Comice,' and I've been watching a tui sitting up there eating snow.
Fourth is of the Eucryphia outside the front door.

[Lesley Cox]

Fifth and sixth are of front lawn with remains of egg-shaped and horrid rose bed, now cleared for bearded iris planting when it dries up (and after reducing and re-shaping). Prunus autumnalis in left foreground of sixth.
Seventh is of an early camellia. The hens jump up and snatch and eat the flowers of this one so there are no flowers left lower than about 60cms.
First camellia out on a plant which taps on my bedroom window. The bright spot isn't the sun, but camera flash, this being the dark side of the house.

[Robert]

Lesley,

The snow is so beautiful! I hope that you did not get any plant damage??

Here in the Sierra Foothills we get the "Sierra Cement" - a very wet snow that generally causes a lot of damage, or pruning, depending on how one wants to look at it. The last big snow we had - and the power was out for about a week. The oak trees snap, breaking the power lines. We have wood heat, a wood cook stove, and kerosene lamps so we are okay til they get the lines fixed.

Thank you so much for sharing the photographs - I'm feeling cooler already! 

[Hillview croconut]

Hi Lesely.

I told you it was on the way!

Looks brilliant though.

Cheers, Marcus

[fermi de Sousa]

Well, Lesley, we haven't had any snow drop on us, but there's still some snowdrops here
I think this is 'S. Arnott', not doing too badly but not loving it in our garden,
cheers
fermi

[Jupiter]

Lesley that's an amazing winter wonderland you had there. My kids would have been beside themselves with joy. 

No snow here but a very frosty morning resulted in a heavy frost, quite rare for us here. No damage done I don't think but some pretty ice crystals on things in the garden.