Crocus April 2008

[Guff]

I bought Haarlem Gem last fall from BulbMeister. I see two grow tips so far, I think I bought 3 corms. I will take a picture if one flowers.

[Guff]

Lesley, thanks. My first big order of crocus was going to be on my dog's grave, but then I made my fall 06 holding bed. So this time I saved 800 crocus to put on the grave. I still have another dog's grave to do, but I have snowdrops, tigerlily's, bloodroot, daffodils seedlings growing, so I have to wait a few more years before I can dig those out, and redo with crocus.  It does have maybe 40 crocus, 4 tulips, and some daffodils on the grave though.

Picture is from last spring.
Second picture is the one I wanted to post.

First picture is my dog's grave from last spring, now with the 800 crocus.

[Lesley Cox]

I hope you don't have to dispose of a dog each time you want to start a new bulb bed?

[Jim McKenney]

crocus cultivar ‘Haarlem Gem’. Has anyone seen this in commerce recently? 

Jim, you will find it here

http://shop.bulbmeister.com/fall/fall.html?q=Crocus%20(Spring)&s=75&l=25&z=0

Thanks, David. And that's a lot closer to home than I expected.

[Guff]

Lesley, my two dogs were Christmas gifts from my brother, and they were also brothers. Dogs are too much like a person, and when they die it's hard to deal with. I don't have a dog, and I doubt I ever will again. So no, no dog is required for new crocus. I do have cats though, by the way, all those expensive crocus I bought last fall are on my cats grave.

[Boyed]

Tony,
Yesterday I took away all the flowers on the variety "Queen of the Blues" for safety, as there is always a massive bee attack on my crocuses. I'll wait until next spring to see what's the case and, of course, I will inform about the results. I think i'll be useful for all of us to know.
Now I think about a method or a chemical to frighten the bees and keep them away from my plants. As I see they cause a lot of harm to my plants every year. Some bulbs, which are especially succeptable to viruses, I isolate from bees, and on them I never observe virus infection at all, while 20-30% of non-isolated plants catch virus every year.

[Boyed]

Guff,

Your idea about taking such a special care about dog' grave is pretty nice. Though it sounds quite strange for our culture, but I wellcome it. I imagine how you loved them.

[Thomas Huber]

Lesley, I will not use the "V"-word - but I should!!! Your medius is not looking good!!!

Howard, your seedling looks great - is this the one you showed 2 or 3 years ago?
I don't know any cultivar looking like this one!

Guff, what a wonderful grave - hope Chris will create mine like this one !!

[Paul T]

Thats a lovely hybrid seedling. Interesting colour blend.

Here in Canberra, not as many crocus flowering as yet. C. goulimyi in the main garden has a clump of about 10 flowers up, of which the first opened today.  In the new crocus garden there are leaf shoots emerging on two different goulimyi forms, plus a bud on mathewii as well as the last flower on pulchellus.  Out the back of the house I have a bud on a new asuminae which I will post a pic of when it opens to confirm it is correct.  Hopefully this time I can grow it successfully..... it's planted into a massive (4 feet wide or so) pot with a Magnolia grandiflora 'Little Gem' plus assorted little special bulbs.  This should hopefully give a good soil mass to give them all a little more insulation than the small pots.  I check the new crocus garden every day, but still very few signs of crocus as yet.  Lots of leaves on Narcissus bulbocodium/romieuxii cultivars etc, but still very few crocus.

[HClase]

No Thomas, this is not the same one, but it arose in the same bed.  The bronze one was really outstanding amongst its parents, but, as you can see there was a mass of corms mixed up with Ash roots as well, and I didn't manage to extract it safely - if I remember rightly it was deeper than I'd expected.  Here, for old times sake, is what it looked like.  I'm always hoping for another!  Like anyone who grows C. chrysanthus cultivars in any number I get a lot of new seedlings, mostly of little interest, but the ones from the 'Princess Beatrix' bed seem to be especially good.  I'm really more interested in the species, but the variation in this group is difficult to ignore!  Pictures are from 2004.

[Guff]

Uklin Strain and Tatra Shades.  Picture taken with my camera, so picture quality is terrible. Tatra Shade isn't the same form Tony G posted in March(C vernus x tommasinianus), bummer. Still nice though.

[Paul T]

Howdy All,

Here's another one from here in the southern hemisphere...... purchased a couple of years ago as Crocus pallassii ssp dispathacea.  Quite an elegant thing, and extremely intricate when you get down close and look at it.  It literally appeared since yesterday afternoon, as I checked the garden after I got home from work as I do each day.

[Guff]

Tatra Shades. I should have a vernus ssp. vernus var. heuffelianus flower open tomorrow.

[udo]

After a flowering-period from nine months, here is my last crocus for this spring;
a small and late form from Crocus minimus with the name 'Little Beauty'

[art600]

Dirk

Hope I might see something as good during my trip to Iran - leaving tomorrow.