Crocus April 2008

[Maggi Young]

This venture of Tony's to bring a Crocus Group area to this Forum is warmly welcomed and eagerly awaited. Grateful thanks to Tony for forging ahead with this initiative

[Paul T]

Thanks Tony.  looking forward to seeing what the Crocus group stuff is like.

John,

Fine clumps of crocus there.  Very nice!!

[tboland]

Our crocus season is just starting too.  The first pic is C. biflorus var. taurii.  Next is 'Dorothy' and to the left a sieberi.  the purple I'm not sure...tommassiniasum 'Barr's Purple' perhaps?  Third is a spontaneous hybrid that arose in my garden. Fourth is C. etruscus. Fifth is 'King of the Stripes'.  Sixth is 'Saturnus' and the last one is 'Cream Beauty'.  Most of mine are still under snow!

[Paul T]

Tod,

Lovely Crocus.  I love your spontaneous hybrid.  Very nice.

Would it be possible to make the pictures no more than around 800 wide?  That way we don't have to scroll across to see the rest of the pic.  The height isn't a problem as we're scrolling downward anyway, but the width can make it difficult to properly see the pic (which is frustrating when the thumbnail looks so good!  ).

Great pics (as are all the others that you've posted today).

[HClase]

Thanks for your encouragement guys.  I was wondering whether everyone was getting bored with my one man show of crocus after everyone else's were over.  Now that I am joined by John and Todd (one nearly 1000 km away and the other about 5 km) I don't feel quite so lonely!  Where else is spring just starting?  Alaska, Tromsö?  (While Halifax has had 18C our temperature dropped 14C overnight and we've had 0C and lower all day - no pictures from my garden today!)

I've been thinking of approaching my travel agent to see about setting up a Crocus Tour of Newfoundland and maybe Nova Scotia too, so that European crocophiles needed suffer from with drawal symptoms.  Then we could proceed to visit Lesley and Paul - Crocus all year round!  One real advantage of just keeping it to pictures though is that the camera is very selective, an actual garden visit would reveal that 90% of it is a mess!

[Lesley Cox]

A world crocus tour? Fabulous!

Thanks everyone for these wonderful pictures. As for boredom Howard, no way. It's surprising that though to a large extent we all grow the same basic species, as well as some really special ones, the pics are not duplicates. Different climates, surroundings, companions in the ground etc, make each one different from the others, so no, never bored.

[Lesley Cox]

I too, am eagerly awaiting Tony's Crocus Group thread.

[Guff]

My brother took these last week for me.

[Paul T]

They do have nice markings don't they!  Particularly the Tetra Shades. 

[Lesley Cox]

I've noticed in a few of your pics, Guff, that there is some kind of bird netting over your crocus bed. Is this to keep off the birds? I did that one year but some of the emerging flowers were cut in half as they forced their way up through the netting.

[HClase]

Golly are you up for tomorrow already Lesley?   I went out early this morning while the crocuses were still deciding whether to respond to bright sunshine and open up, or to the cold air and stay closed - I needn't have bothered as it never rose above 4C despite the cloudless sky and at most  a few half opened!   I wanted to show the outside patterns of a couple of them to check with Thomas.  The first is what I think is 'E.P. Bowles', and the second another Tommie seedling/cv? which is very dark with even darker tips and basal blotches.  We have a lot of clumps along one side of our driveway which has become a home for lost corms, so don't know much about their real origins, especially as a lot of them are moved by my wife rather than me.  Judging from the number of pictures I take, C. sieberi 'Hubert Edelsten' must be one of my favorites, but I cannot resist a couple more!

The leaf is from my C. cancellatus pot, they have developed brown tips every year recently, and at first I put it down to watering or nutrient neglect on my part, but not so this year and it's just the same.  I'm wondering if it's some sort of virus - although, luckily it doesn't seem to affect the flowers.  One or two other pots of autumn flowerers are similar.

[Thomas Huber]

Howard - your Crocus EP Bowles looks OK to me. The tommie looks like Ruby Giant - this one was discussed very hot some weeks ago.
None of your photos is boring - keep them coming!! Love your Hubert Edelsten clump!!

Welcome Todd - you have a beautiful collection. The chrysanthus seedling looks like "Warley" - a good and rare cultivar. Do you remember to have planted this one?

Tony - a very good idea with the crocus group newsletter!!!!!!

Guff - I have checked my Negro Boy's in the lawn: So far no seed pod visible!

[Maggi Young]

Howard, I cannot blame you for your C. Hubert Edelsten ph pictures.... "he" is very photogenic 

[Guff]

Lesley, I have 12+ squirrels running around the yard, and deer also. Sometimes I remove the netting, others times I don't. Sometimes you can't see the netting for some reason, while other pictures it sticks out like a sore thumb. As far as the netting hitting the crocus flowers, I have posts holding up the netting, and the netting is 6in-10in above the flowers.

Thomas thanks. Whats your thoughts on this flower, found it in with the Nergo Boy's. It's the only one that has pollen, and the white edging is wide. Wish my camera took nice pictures.

[Guff]

Few more that were taken last week.