Crocus February 2008

[Andrew]

Seeing all these beautiful Crocus, I ask myself if I should make more pictures of Crocus next week. 

Does that really need an answer Luit ??

[art600]

Both TonyG & Tony Willis and Thomas

Superb photographs.  Tony W and I have been to a lot of the same places and the Crocus from Bolu and Ulu Dag brought back happy memories.

[Armin]

What a beautiful day 
Some more plants from my garden:
- Crocus biflorus ssp nubigena - white coloured
- Crocus biflorus ssp nubigena - blue coloured (I love them both)
- a good and vigorous form of Crocus antalyensis
- C. angustifolius "Berlin Gold", a pure yellow selection without any stripes
- C. sieheanus
- C. sieberi ssp sieberi - same clump as yesterday, but with the dark edged beauty open
- Some C. versicolor forms - the first one looks somewhat similar to the tradeform "Picturatus" but its stripes are much finer and in my opinion much better!
- mixed bed in my garden

Thomas,
beautiful series. Impressive the different color variation of C.versicolor.

[Armin]

very nice plants Thomas, here are some of mine from today When I first looked in the greenhouse I thought the hybrid was actually a biflorus alexandri but it is biflorus pulchricolor crossed with chrysanthus and is a natural hybrid from seed collected on ulu dag

Tony W.,
very interesting the C.etruscus form you have which is so different on the outer pedal markings compared to the common "Zwanenburg" clone.
Also C.chrysanthus around from lake Beysehir with the dark stem and the rounded pedals is very lovely.
Finally, the natural hybrid from Ulu Dag looks similar to the commercial clone C. chrysanthus Blue Pearl.
Does it have a yellow center too?

[Martin Baxendale]

Here's a funny one. I have a patch of very odd little yellowish-white tommies in the garden, and amongst them appeared one even stranger one. It really stood out this year because the small yellow-whites aren't flowering well after dying down early in last year's hot, dry Spring weather.

The main patch is quite odd - very small yellow-white tommasinianus flowers which don't open up wide, with bright orange stigmas sticking out. I'll try to get a photo of them if they flower next year.

But in the meantime, here's a pic of the strange speckled one (I have one or two others with some speckling on the outside that have seeded further from the clump, but this is the best. It must be a seedling:

[Martin Baxendale]

I meant to say, it doesn't seem virused and is quite healthy.

Here are a couple of flowers, not looking very good, of the yellowish-whites:

[Armin]

Martin,
thats really a strange tommy! If it is healthy then it is just great!
But due to many discussions in the forum I'm getting a bit uncertain whenever I see a speckled one if it is virused or not.
Virus are so small...

[Armin]

Martin, maybe you can call it "Freckles"

[Martin Baxendale]

I'll try to lift it tomorrow and bring it in to make it open up more, so I can get some better photos and so you can see the leaves. I don't think it's virused.

[Tony Willis]

Armin I collected the etruscus about 20 years ago  in Italy and they are the same corms from then.Yes they are different.

I will look at the hybrid tomorrow and report on its centre

[tonyg]

Here are some more from the first of my sunny days. 
2 forms of Crocus cyprius - quite different.  Both differ from my other forms.  Hopefully with several clones now in the collection I can improve seed set which has been sparse from my original clone.
Crocus dalmaticus - Collection with a Mathew collection number.
Crocus pestalozzae - var caeruleus.  This species has the smallest seeds of any crocus but is not difficult to raise.
Crocus versicolor - unstriped clone

[Paul T]

Thomas,

Taht Siberi ssp sieber with the dark edging is amazing.  Does it always flower like this?  Would be worth isolating and building up into its own clump.... a bunch of that in flower together would be breathtaking!!

Tony,

Wonderfully open pics.  Obviously you're getting some nice sunshine there at the moment!! 

Currently 11'C overnight here, and only aiming for 19'C.  Positively cold compared to normal for the last month, and icey for the height of summer in February!! 

[Armin]

Tony G.,
beautiful! C.dalmaticus & pestalozzae look so nobly.
Your form of C.versicolor is so evenly striped - great.
You mention this C. cyprius is quite different. Does it have no blue outer markings?

[tonyg]

The differences in the Crocus cyprius are only subtle.  The one with the more rounded petals is paler and has a less prominent dark marking on the lower part of the petals.
Here are some different Crocus sieberi.
The first shot is Crocus sieberi ssp atticus (left) and Crocus sieberi ssp sublimis (right).
The rest are all forms of Crocus sieberi ssp sieberi.
The final two shots are very similar to the plant that Mark has shown us called 'Ronald Ginns'

[Armin]

Tony,
thanks for your explanation.
Your C. sieberi forms are suberb!
It is a real pleasure to see them.