Crocus September 2017

[Maggi Young]

Olga Bondareva has been in the mountains, the Caucasus,  with friends once more .... here are some of her wonderful photos of Crocus scharojanii in the wild .....

[Maggi Young]

Here are some of the variations seen - Olga wonders whether the opinion is that they are hybrids or forms of C. scharojanii ....... must say I think they are forms .... so very beautiful, every one of them.

[Maggi Young]

Of course, Crocus vallicola grows in the Causcasus also - this photo  by Olga....

[pehe]

Beautiful pics of this rare and hard to grow Crocus!

Thanks for showing us. I would have loved to be there myself.

Poul

[pehe]

Flowering in my garden yesterday:

Crocus suworovianus
Crocus speciosus (or one of the new species), early clone from Russia.
Crocus autranii, vallicola, banaticus First Snow and cappadocicus is in bud too. More pics to follow.

Poul

[Roma]

My first crocus of the season on September 1st
Crocus pulchellus

[tonyg]

An early start to the season here in Norfolk.  It was much cooler at night in August than is usual.  This seems to have triggered early rooting and early growth in some bulbs.  Happily I have been able to repot the bulbs much earlier this year.

The first crocus to flower is in the garden, Crocus serotinus salzmannii which in some forms is a long lived garden plant here.

[Maggi Young]

Such a lovely time of the Crocus year.  Pity we've got so many mice about the place!

[pehe]

A few more Crocus has opened today

Crocus cappadocius
Crocus suworovianus lilacinus
Crocus banaticus First Snow

Poul

[tonyg]

Such a lovely time of the Crocus year.  Pity we've got so many mice about the place!

I noticed on the BL

[Yann]

that's early, no sign of growth yet for my Crocuses.

[Sam Eijkenboom]

How can I remove this message? I accidentally created this message but I don't know how to delete it.

[Janis Ruksans]

At first I want to thank all my friends and forumists for Bon wishes at my 71!
As I hoped - I finished repotting of crocuses in August, really only 30th of August I potted my last corms and in same date I got 2 parcels with another crocuses, which were immediately potted. So late potting isn't easy, some crocuses already made very long shoots (you can see those in picture of Crocus cancellatus s.l. from near Gurun, Turkey) and harvesting of such + cleaning takes time, to not broke long young shoot.
Next day all were watered and only few days later first flowers popped up. Now every day new and new flowers comes up, but I'm still harvesting and potting, potting. Yesterday finished harvesting of Scilla, today Ornithogalums and finished potting of Corydalis solida cultivars. Hardly hope to finish before mid-October.
And as the first started blooming of Crocus scharojanii var. flavus. Flowers were immediately pollinated. I regarded it as sterile hybrid, but Henrik told me, that it set seeds, so I want to cherck this. Some pollens were used on flowers of Crocus vallicola and C. suworovianus.
This autumn many species starts blooming together. Only a day later opened first flowers of C. autranii (not yet pictured - but today there are plenty of them).

[Janis Ruksans]

As I wrote - many species start blooming simultaneously. On this entry flowers of Crocus vallicola from Russian Caucasus, originally collected by Henrik Zetterlund few years ago.
On the last picture is C. vallicola from Soģanli pass in NE Turkey. By flower it more resembles Crocus suworovianus, but its corms lied in soil horizontally (in suworovianus they lie on side).

[Janis Ruksans]

Crocus suworovianus this autumn blooms in same time as C. vallicola. Here pictures of this crocus collected on various mountain passes.
From Crocus cancellatus group the first this year bloomed C. mazziaricus s.l. from Samos Island, Greece.