Crocus October 2015

[Janis Ruksans]

Another crocus from speciosus group described by HKEP - Crocus striatulus from NE Turkey. Easy separable by leaves which has very narrow wide median stripe
Then selection from C. robertianus with tricolored flowers, but not so prominent this season
Crocus from serotinus group collected in Portugal. As I didn't note corm tunics, can't give more precise identification now. Stock is small and I don't want to damage some. Temptation was harder - now it is identified as C. salzmannii.
An the last - another form of C. tournefortii.

[Janis Ruksans]

Some more pictures from sunny Saturday.
The first is Crocus cancellatus form from Turkey - very unusual and needs determination.
Then one of the best C. hadriaticus from near vil. Papigo in N Greece
Then 3 different C. longiflorus. By me the most beautiful is form from Basilicata (Thanks to Filippo!); form from Nebrodi has largest flowers and blooms very abundantly.

[Janis Ruksans]

In this entry several of pallasii group
The first from Turkey, E from Antalya
The next is from Labranda. In our forum long ago was written that near Labranda is growing best pallasii ever seen. I 3 times visited Labranda and in each case found only 1 individual and they really turned very beautiful of perfect form. Unfortunately locality is completely destroyed by wild boars. Muslims are not eating pig's meat, so no one are hunting them and locally they are real disaster to crocuses.
Then follow form from Chios Island with black anthers. On Chios pallasii is very variable, some 20-30 % percent has black anthers, but there are no uniform populations - in each are many with yellow anthers, too.
Labranda pallasii crosses with Homeri from Chios. Here hybrids between both - the first blooming.
The last is C. pallasii from near Athens. It is not macedonicus and closer to pallasii from Islands and W Turkey, but it is the first year with me, so I'm too short in data for some decision.

[Janis Ruksans]

Still are blooming Crocus xantholaimos, to be true - those are late replanted corms, so blooming delayed, too
Crocus macedonicus are at its top of blooming
Then Crocus turcicus, another member of C. pallasii group
followed by Crocus lycius from Turkey
and as last Crocus robertianus from Greece - one of the best autumn bloomers, but not the best grower in our hard climate

[ruben]

Stunning pictures Janis! I really like the pallasii from Chios Island and Crocus striatulus.
I remember you're paper from 2013 you described Crocus hellenicus. Is this one flowering yet? Do you have some pictures of it? Wuld be nice to see because i really love it, especially the style, on the pictures in you're paper.

[Philip Walker]

Thanks Tony.I got them from our AGS group meeting.The second one does sound more familiar.

[Janis Ruksans]

Stunning pictures Janis! I really like the pallasii from Chios Island and Crocus striatulus.
I remember you're paper from 2013 you described Crocus hellenicus. Is this one flowering yet? Do you have some pictures of it? Would be nice to see because i really love it, especially the style, on the pictures in you're paper.

Thanks! Here two pictures of Crocus hellenicus made just before my Italian travel (11th & 12th of October), today made some more pictures, but still not prepared for Forum.
In addition picture where you can compare size of flowers in Crocus laevigatus from Greece (both on sides) and from former laevigatus from Crete which I named C. pumilus (both in middle) and those are not specially selected flowers but just usual size. Although laevigatus this season seem that formed slightly larger flowers than usually.

[Michael J Campbell]

Crocus boryi x laevigatus. CC 29-09-10
Crocus boryi x laevigatus. CC 29-09-10
Crocus laevigatus. CC 29-09-10
Crocus laevigatus. CC 29-09-10

[Janis Ruksans]

Some more pictures of today. At first all from speciosus group.
Most interesting is the first blooming in my collection of crocus originally collected in Talish, Azerbaijan. Most likely it is the crocus species which before 2nd World War was described by Grossheim (famous botanist, author of Flora Caucasica) as Crocus polyanthus. But as there was not added Latin diagnosis (obligatory at that time) the name remained "nomen nudum", that is - it is not valid. I suppose that it is same species which I named Crocus armeniacum. Unfortunately I have only 1 corm which I got from France. Others collected for me by Dima left in Donetsk, now occupied by Russia, and so were lost. But it looks very similar and it is plant of open meadows, too.
Others in this entry are C. sakariensis - woodland crocus of very low altitudes, not characteristic for general speciosus.
Another woodlander is Crocus ibrahimi (note white anthers - whilst it was for long misidentified as C. pulchellus)
and last from this group is C. hellenicus - still blooming, and most likely woodlander, too. I saw it only on forest edge, on Yaila but not on meadow. But my both visits there were at very start of season, so it still is under question. On two other known Greek localities I didn't succeed to find it. Most likely I was there too early.
And as last picture - another C. pallasii from Chios - in this population all plants are light coloured and many are plain white.

[Janis Ruksans]

And last entry for a moment - another shot of C. hadriaticus from Papigo - by my opinion the best hadriaticus.
Some more multipetalled individuals - now C. asumaniae
Crocus niveus seems forms the largest flowers between all autumn bloomers. With it can compete only C. armeniacum and may be Crocus pallasii from Labranda.
Today started blooming another acquisition of Crocus tournefortii - from Karpathos Island in Greece.

[Boyed]

Then follow two pictures of crocus which I want to name Crocus armeniacum - one from locus classicus near Goris, another from Vahagni - locality not visited by me but corms I got from Zhirair. I think that Zhirair regards that they are different types, but here I specially selected specimen from Goris with similar colour type, so I suppose that both belongs to same species, but may be I'm wrong.

Dear Janis,
I grow 2 forms of crocus speciosus from Vahagni - 'Blue River' (formerly called 'Vahagni', but I change the name, as the new name best fits and sounds well for foreigners) and 'Cloudy Sky'. Both are propagated from a single corm. In regards to crocus armeniacum from Goris, I also found specimen from Goris samples with similar colour type with 'Vahagni'. I selected it for vegetative propagation and named it 'True Blue'. In difference to 'Vahangni', Goris specimen has yelow anthers (not white), and is not as strongs as 'Vahagni'. Crocuses from Vahagni have very thick constitution of petals, too floriferous and have very strong tubes. I show the photos.

1. crocus speciosus 'True Blue' (uniform-coloured in the left, selection from Goris)
2. crocus speciosus 'True Blue' (in an open state)
3. crocus speciosus 'Blue River' (ex 'Vahagni)
4. crocus speciosus 'Blue River' (ex 'Vahagni)



Janis, I want to thank you for showing and sharing your wonderful pictures of crocuses. Your collection is really astonishing. I especially liked goulimyi 'Pink Wonder'. I get a great pleasure out of reading and studying your posts.

 edit by maggi to add link to Janis' picture of C. goulimyi 'Pink Wonder'

[Boyed]

Again, I want to show my selections of crocus speciosus from Goris. I showed them in my previous post as well, but this time I made good pictures, where you can really judge their beauty and visually deferentiate from other named speciosus cultivars.

1. crocus speciosus 'Bohemian Beauty' - variety with prominant contrasting stripes
2. crocus speciosus 'Evening Melody' - true purple, considerably darker from known Dutch cultivars, also has elongated form of  bloom, but bad increaser.
3. crocus speciosus 'Skyline' - pale crocus with milky white outer petals from outside.
4. compariosn picture - crocus speciosus 'Evening Melody' and 'Skyline'

[ruben]

Stunning pictures Janis! I really like the Crocus hellenicus and sakariensis.

You're hadriaticus from papingo is really nice! I look a bit to the one i grow from Mt. Enos. The same yellow throat and blush. See picture. Its still flowering. Every corm flowered with 5 flowers :-d

Crocus goulimyi ssp. leucanthus from Monemvasia Greece
Crocus oreocreticus
Crocus pulchellus 'Michaël Hoog'
Crocus hadriaticus x Purple heart

[Boyed]

Crocus niveus seems forms the largest flowers between all autumn bloomers. With it can compete only C. armeniacum and may be Crocus pallasii from Labranda.

Interesting, I grow crocus niveus different forms. They are, indeed, large, but cannot be compared with sizes with my crocus speciosus cultivars, even cannot be put closer. I noticed that several sources state that crocus niveus is the largest fall-blooming crocus. Hard to believe that there are forms which could be even lager than speciosus. Would like very much to have such kind of large-blooming niveus.

By the way, Janis, in regards to Facebook, you just need to turn of notifications to your e-mail in Settings. No need to delete your page, as facebook has many positive things and very inforative.

[Janis Ruksans]

Very good selections, Zhirair. Greetings. I didn't select any from Goris plants but they really are the largest between speciosus. Good grown niveus really has huge flowers. Not measured exactly, but they are very close in size with C. armeniacum. I have both your selections from Vahagni and they seem very close to Goris plants as well as Talish crocus. Will try to arrange DNS checking for all three samples. It would be very nice if you will found possibility to visit Vahagni and to search for its wild population (I know its story).

Ruben, regarding Crocus goulimyi leucanthus - I'm really doubtful - is it valid separation? I collected goulimyi on Monemvasia by myself and they all were inseparable from typical goulimyi. I really cannot draw any distinguishing lines between them. So I prefer to regard var. leucanthus as the same goulimyi, only colour form of it. They are almost identical in size with white forms of goulimyi, may be my stock of leucanthus are of cooler shade of white than mine goulimyi Mani White and Alba.

Attached two more pictures of Crocus hadriaticus from Papigo. In wild it was so special, that my first idea - new one, but then I understood that it is only something smaller and more compact hadriaticus. Other three are different acquisitions of Crocus pumilus from Crete - full sun raised temperature in greenhouse and flower segments reflexes.