Crocus June, 2018

[Janis Ruksans]

What can happen in June in the Crocus World of Northern hemisphere? It is time of harvesting and thinking about some faults, problems, successes etc. For me this June was the first when I started and finished packing of orders. Today last orders were brought to post office - still left to harvest some additional and special wishes for plants out of catalogue and for special friends. So tomorrow I will be back to standart routine - will continue harvesting of crocuses. Still left species with annulate tunic from NE Turkey and Caucasus, chrysanthus group and then will go other spring bloomers and autumnals. Around one third is repotted.
Every year we are learning something new regardless of 50+ years of experience with crocuses and a lot of lessons from nature. In mid May I returned from Iran. May was cool there - temperature around +18 C whilst in Latvia up to 30. Something strange happens. My greatest surprise was finding of reticulata irises and crocuses with almost ripe seeds in very wet soil. May be I'm too early stopping watering? Those plants can withstand much wetter conditions than I suppose? Must to check this.
Another surprise was size of Crocus corms in wild and their variability in size. On attached picture are crocus corms found on around 1 sq.m. and all had seed capsules. Some were of size which are sold by Dutch nurseries. And those are in wild (most likely new species).
About other observations in coming days. We just passed Midsummer festivity. Latvians are bad Christians, we still are keeping our ancient Gods and still celebrating ancient fests giving presents to our native gods. On other picture I with my wife Guna watching song and dance presentation during shortest night of year in Cesis castle park.
Next week I'm out of garden - we have large song and dance festival in Riga where I will sing between 18 000 singers from all Latvia. It happens after each 5 years and this year it is dedicated to 100 Anniversary of Latvian state.

[Janis Ruksans]

In my previous entry I wrote about moisture in seeding time of crocuses in Iran. Today got confirmation from here. Quite long ago I harvested Crocus vaclavii. Corms were comparatively small, smaller than I expected. But today I repotted pot where was some mix - some bulb of Prospero autumnalis, some Romulea sp. and 1 corm of Crocus vaclavii. Due Prospero on label it was watered much longer and still had slightly wet soil in pot and ... corm of C. vaclavii was of very large size, much larger than in pots with proper C. vaclavii label.
Actually smaller size of crocus corms this season was mostly caused by sudden hot wave just after I left home for Iran. For plants from high altitudes coming of hot is signal that growing season ended and so stopped development of bulbs. More from hot suffered species from more northern latitudes. Excellent sample is two crocus species earlier regarded by Mathew as conspecific - Crocus thirkeanus (herbertii) and C. gargaricus. Both are from high altitudes only thirkeanus comes from N Turkey, but gargaricus from SW Turkey. Both suffered from hot and thirkeanus in general formed corms of 5 mm in diameter - quite normal in wild, but in cultivation usually they are larger. C. gargaricus corms were distinctly larger, it spring it made huge size flowers, had long good leaves and roots filled pot. I expected huge corms, too, but they were much smaller than average, but still larger than in thirkeanus. Species from more Southern latitudes are more accommodated to such hot waves.
About influence of planting depth in next entry, may be tomorrow, but now few pictures from Midsummer festivity in our home.
On the first my wife Guna and I and festivity table with cups for bear, so named "Janis Cheese"(some kind of soft country cheese maid in each country house for this evening). On next two I together with my wife [we both are dressed in traditional folk dress (archaeological)] and Gunas elder daughter Una. And on last - frame with honey from Janis day on our fest-table. Old belief tells that all herbs must be collected in the Janis night when they has magic power, and honey harvested that nigh is the most powerful and healthy. I took out only 1 frame for own enjoying., so it is not still completely filled, as I will harvest my honey-crop after our singing festival.

[Maggi Young]

Wishing you the happiest of midsummer festivities, Janis!  Super photos!

[Maggi Young]

Janis wrote : What can happen in June in the Crocus World of Northern hemisphere?

Well, there is this.....
International Rock Gardener June 2018   IRG102


The IRG Team is pleased to be able to publish a description of a new species of peony, named for the late, great Jim (J.C.) Archibald by two of his many admirers, Jānis Rukšāns and Henrik Zetterlund. The SRGC is proud to host online the Archibald Archive to represent the work of Jim and Jennie Archibald in bringing such a wide range of plants to the attention - and gardens - of so many plant lovers worldwide. Imagine then, our delight to be given another species description by these two famous plantsmen, this time of a crocus to be named for two of our team.  That Jānis and Henrik have chosen to honour them in this way with Crocus youngiorum is deeply appreciated by Maggi and Ian both for themselves and for the association with the SRGC. The third new species this month is an Andean Alstroemeria from Chile, described by John M.Watson, Ana (Anita) R. Flores with Gloria Rojas.


Crocus youngiorum  corms


Crocus youngiorum 


Cover photo: Paeonia archibaldii Rukšāns species nova.

Link for IRG 102  of June 2018 : http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2018Jun291530286276IRG102June2018.pdf

[Lesley Cox]

Warmest congratulations Maggi and Ian on your attaining one of the highest honours the world  can give, a new crocus named especially for you both. There is no doubt it is richly deserved and I shudder to think how little I would know about this genus and so many others if it were not for SRGC and its amazing Forum, the Bulb Log and The International Rock Gardener. While Janis, Mathew and others do the scientific things, these three sources in particular and with the Journal of course, put everything in a format that the least educated of us can understand and appreciate.  They make it all accessible and without the Youngs at the helm in so many areas, they probably wouldn't exist at all. Your crocus is a beauty and this can only be enhanced by association with your name.

[Maggi Young]

Thanks, Lesley - Ian and I are  deeply honoured  by this  action from Janis and Henrik - it's very exciting,too!

[Janis Ruksans]

Continuing about some observations about crocuses made during this season I came to planting depth. Comparing corm size of the same species planted in my traditional way - around 7 cm deep and occasionally even shallower - with the corms grown up from seeds and remaining in original pot up to first blooming, I found that seedling corms are much larger and laying in pot much deeper. So now I'm carefully looking for planting depth. Pots used by me are 20 cm deep, so now I'm placing corms not less than 10 cm deep. In such a way they will be more protected from hot and will grow in more even moisture conditions. Long time ago Ian Young in his bulb log wrote that he practice deep sawing of crocus seeds. About this I found not great advantage comparing with traditional sawing depth, but I experimented when we had "normal" temperatures. May be now, after such hot waves results would be different? Oh, this weather. Last summer was coldest an d wettest since 1928, this one is driest and hottest ever recorded. But everything can change in the second half of season. Will see...

Next week I will be away from garden – we have large Choir and Dance Festival when 18 000 singers are singing together. I’m between singers and all the next week will be rehearsals before huge concertos 7th and 8th of July (with 30 000 spectators in new open air concert hall). Everything starts after tomorrow with great manifestation in Riga by all singers and dancers. Our granddaughter is dancing there, too. After that back to repotting. Today I harvested my tulip hybrids grown in garden. The best crop ever seen with huge size of bulbs. They certainly benefit from hot and dry weather. But in garden ends peony blooming and starts phloxes. Never before seen in flower in June! We even changed date of Phlox festival in our nursery from the first weekend of August to two weeks earlier - so it will be after three weeks. Every pone is welcome. My wife Guna is growing around 200 cultivars of Phlox paniculata.

On attached picture I'm in front of our choir during previous Song and Dance Festival 5 years ago (during manifestation) and visit of our choir (eldest in Latvia - we few years ago celebrated 150th Anniversary) in our nursery - between peonies.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Thanks, Lesley - Ian and I are  deeply honoured  by this  action from Janis and Henrik - it's very exciting,too!

I couldn't think of a more deserved honour Ian and Maggi ! 
Many congratulations and hoping that the Crocus does well and becomes available to us croconuts soon !

[Janis Ruksans]

This morning I still looked for some special crocus corms for special customers and tomorrow morning last two orders will be posted, but today just after some hour in greenhouse I dressed in my ethnographic dressing and went to main road where soon was picked up by special bus for large manifestation. There were more than 1000 buses bringing from all corners of Latvia 18000 singers and 18000 dancers to Riga for our main even t - once in five years. As there are no crocus pictures to be shown - I hope you would like those few from our very windy manifestation.
On the first I'm together with both conductors of our choir - next year we will celebrate 155 anniversary of choir - eldest still working in Latvia\
Two other pictures I copied from Facebook (foto Edijs Pālēns) - they shows you weather during manifestation - I had similar battle with wind keeping standard of our choir in hands - so no time was for pictures, but, as my wife told, I was several times shown on TV screen.

[Maggi Young]

My word - that does look very windy, Janis !  Dry though, for the parade - so that is a good thing. Hard to imagine the  coming together of 1000 busses - what a  wonderful gathering!

[Janis Ruksans]

The bus traffic, coming time and police work was incredibly well organized - busses came one by other without any crowd. Left singers and dancers and immediately drove away to large parking spots where waited for manifestants to bring them late night to home. Our region was between the firsts and we started walking at 14-00 but new busses still came and came. The distance was 2 km long and the lasts passed it around 8 o’clock in evening, then was official opening of Festival and special concerto for participants. Huge sporting hall was transferred as eating hall and all those thousands got meal without staying in queue longer than 5-10 persons. It was free, but without choice.
Actually transport organisation immediately called in my memory this spring’s Iranian trip, when on mountain pass just on Iraq-Iran border we observed how are brought to pass hundreds of mules - in each lorry 2 or 3 mules with guide and immediately loading them off and going away to make spot for next car and so around an hour. There were bribed border guard chief and on border was open “window” for contraband. All border guards were called off… Mules simply run to Iraq for returning some days/s later heavy loaded with alcohol and other goods for Iranian underground merchants. The sum paid as bribe was incredible huge. It only shows how profitable is this business.

[Janis Ruksans]

But now back to crocuses. For brave bringing of standard of our choir during all manifestation I got free day. Actually it really was very heavy "job" - regardless of only +12 C, I was wet from sweating.
In night was rain and my prepared substrate became something too wet for current crocuses waiting in line for harvesting, so I turned to those which likes some moisture during summer. The first what I started was crocus autranii - and I was really shocked. I never suspected young shoots already in the first days of July. I even break few before I found them inside old tunics. See on picture 1. The second came scharojanii flavus - there shoots were even longer and regardless of dust dry substrate in pot - even started forming of new roots.
Now in line will come scharojanii, lazicus (I have only 1 corm of each - so don't ask me for those), gilanicus, vallicola, banaticus, and after them spring blooming high mountain species - pelistericus, scardicus, cvijicii, jablanicensis, veluchensis.

[Maggi Young]

The first what I started was crocus autranii - and I was really shocked. I never suspected young shoots already in June. I even break few before I found them inside old tunics. See on picture 1. The second came scharojanii flavus - there shoots were even longer and regardless of dust dry substrate in pot - even started forming of new roots.

My! That growth is so early! These plants can always surprise us.

[Janis Ruksans]

Crocus development this season was extremely strange. Yesterday I checked one pot with Crocus suworovianus - there some corms had even 4 cm long new shoots. Incredibly early.
Crop is strange, too. I already wrote that species from high altitudes formed smaller than usually new corms, but really shocking was crocus veluchensis, where replacement corms were in average only pea-size and few stocks from Northern Macedonia were even lost. Another species, which grew poorly was Crocus thirkeanus (herbertii), where again corms were much smaller than usually could be, but absolutely catastrophic was situation with Crocus banaticus. I repotted approximately only half of numbers planted last autumn, and they didn't look perfect, too. But absolute opposite situation was with Crocus pelistericus. I never before had so large and perfect corms as this season! And they were staying all the time in greenhouse where temperature in hottest days reached 45 C, and never even watered during rest. So recommendations to keep them all the year moist is wrong. Similarly, although not so good (my stocks are very small, so not easy to judge) was situation with C. scardicus and C. gotoburgensis. Both were kept completely dry and grew amazingly well, only seed pods remained between leaves although seeds were well formed and ripe. When I discussed this with Henrik Zetterlund, he told that in Gothenburg they are keeping those crocuses inside greenhouse all the year round and occasionally are watering only sand in which are plunged pots. But they use clay pots. For plastic pots this don't work. Quite poorly grew Crocus cvijicii, too. But excellent crop was formed by atticus, sublimis and some others. In general autumn bloomers which forms leaves already in autumn grew far better, than those which start vegetation only in spring. Sudden hot wave stopped development of many species. But I'm still only at start of harvesting, so will see later how other species reacted to such crazy weather. Now outside is only +12 C.