Crocus March 2015

[Thomas Huber]

General views of my lawn and two rockgardens:

[Maggi Young]

Oh, Hubi - photos to make any day a good day! Thank you!

[hadacekf]

Thomas,
Stunning pictures , fantastic growing plants, congratulation.

[Cyril L]

Your spring has definitely arrived Thomas.  What a lovely sight the crocus lawn and rock gardens are.

[Roma]

I got this one from the Bulb Exchange at the SRGC Discussion Weekend last October.  It was labelled Crocus chrysanthus but I do not know if it is the species or a hybrid.   Before it opened the outside was a fairly dark blue so I was surprised when the inside was such a strong yellow.

[Tim Ingram]

Magical pictures Thomas! - I must read Janis' book much more closely to learn about so many of these crocus species that I know only from the Forum here.

[Janis Ruksans]

I got this one from the Bulb Exchange at the SRGC Discussion Weekend last October.  It was labelled Crocus chrysanthus but I do not know if it is the species or a hybrid.   Before it opened the outside was a fairly dark blue so I was surprised when the inside was such a strong yellow.

I have quite many plants with similar colour - blue + yellow. They all were collected wild where near Akseki met "chrysanthus" and "biflorus". They most likely are natural hybrids. How to name them? I don't know. Extreme alternative - to regard them as multicoloured species, but this really isn't the reply. Both are growing together but separated by blooming time, but most likely having same chromosome number they hybridize. See some of my entries this year.
But in your case I suppose that it is seedling from so named "C. chrysanthus cultivars", although I don't know any with so distinct combination of colours.

[Pauli]

From Parnass:

C. atticus ssp. sublimis in a friends garden?

[Thomas Huber]

I got this one from the Bulb Exchange at the SRGC Discussion Weekend last October.  It was labelled Crocus chrysanthus but I do not know if it is the species or a hybrid.   Before it opened the outside was a fairly dark blue so I was surprised when the inside was such a strong yellow.

Roma, from the colour your plant looks like the cultivar chrysanthus 'Advance' http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=5060.msg138221#new
But it might be a seedling from Advance because the shape of the flowers looks different - I also have a lot of similar looking plants in my lawn, growing around the original Advance plants.

Thanks Maggi, Franz, Cyril + Tim - always a pleasure  Yesterday only 7°C, fog and rain, but today the sun is back

[ichristie]

Hello Thomas superb pictures and great also to see sunshine for the flowers to open. Cyril came to visit today and he fell in love with this crocus in my garden any ideas, cheers Ian the Christie kind.

[Thomas Huber]

I can really understand Cyril 
Looks like Dirk Schnabels heuffelianus 'Snow Princess'
maybe Dirk can confirm this... ?

[Cyril L]

There was a label in the pot but none of us could decipher the exact wording.  When I got home I checked Brian Mathew's book and realised it must be Crocus vernus v. leucorhyncus which is thought to be a variant of vernus subsp. vernus.  Anybody grows this variety?  My first thought was Crocus heuffelianus too, but then C. vernus and heuffelianus are close to each other.

This is my C. heuffelianus Snow Princess, flowering for the first time.  It has more purple than pictures of Snow Princess I have seen, but in future years it may become more typical.

[udo]

Ian and Cyril,
This is really all 'Snow Princess'. This Crocus shows her colouring only optimally if the plant stands very wet, shady and cool. In the full sun the blossoms are smaller and not so nicely in colour and drawing.

[udo]

Some more Crocus in this days,
Cr. angustifolius 'Bronze Form'
      jessoppiae
      kosaninii
   

[Janis Ruksans]

Here started difficult period - sunny days followed by very cold nights. Development of crocuses this season is something strange. Some comes up later than usually. Only today came out C. thirkeanus (herbertii) shoots. C. gargaricus is in full bloom. Usually they flower +/- simultaneously. I was even afraid that I lost my C. thirkeanus. This year almost all C. cvijicii from Greece (deep yellow) are in full bloom, but C. cvijicii from Macedonia (FYROM) with creamy to whitish flowers still not show even noses and the same about white C. jablanicensis (but they are living).
Here started blooming of C. carpetanus. I shortly ago visited Portugal - short visit, only 5 days long (3 days of field work) and there I saw just Crocus carpetanus in full bloom and and by leaves saw clump forming C. clusii with prostrate leaves and individually growing C. salzmannii with erect leaves. So I can show you pictures of C. carpetanus from wild and quite surprising observations.
Typical Crocus carpetanus we saw at typical altitudes - 1150 - 1300 m (by B. Mathew - 1200 - 2300 m). It was growing on granitic soils, under mixed forest of pines and oaks, corms lying shallow in soil. Flowers were plain lilac or white without any striping on segments back. About other population on next entry.

edit by M to correct spelling : Crocus thirkeanus K.Koch
 original publication details: Linnaea 21: 633 1848.