Crocus Year 2021

[pehe]

Crocus kotschyanus var. leucopharynx is especially beautiful!
Steven, I´ve got several colchicums with merged tubes and flowers, though gardening beyond the border in Germany.

Crocus vallicola is one I was looking for, I´m glad to grow it now.  :-)


The crocus to the right was grown from SRGC-seed received in 2018, Crocus nudiflorus. The one to the left came to me as a blind passenger in a pot with Crocus banaticus from a friend. It looks very attractive, but I´m afraid it´s virus - diseased?

I have found a similar  Crocus nudiflorus in my garden and I am afraid it is virused. It is shown with a normal nudiflorus.

[Mariette]

Well, it would be a pity if it were virused, as it shows such a nice deep colour!

What bothers me is that I never noticed virused crocusses among the few I bought, but suspects turned up for the first time this year among my seedlings. There was a Crocus banaticus which probably was virused, but as the flower didn´t develop properly, I discarded it without taking a pic. I´m uncertain whether I have to get rid of all the bulbs in a pot or just the one showing symptoms.

[pehe]

By advice from a good friend I have potted it and placed it far away from other Crocus and Iris. I will check the leaves for virus signs in spring.
My friend pointed out that the pattern is symmetrical and not random which is typical for a virused flower.

I will suggest that you split the healthy one and the suspicious in two different pots and keep them isolated from other crocus to see how they perform next year.

[Janis Ruksans]

Hi, Yes I do also have 'normal' crocuses, in fact about 99% :-)

But what struck my amazement this morning, yet again a deformation, I have not seen this many any year before.
I feed them bonemeal mostly as a fertiliser; perhaps some of the growth hormones used in the meat industry have something to do with it? So far I can't think of any other plausibel cause (which doesn't mean there can be loads of other factors of course)
This is C. mathewii 'Dream Dancer'. Does anyone else notice any more 'changes' than usual this year?

`
Effect of very high temperatures during flower development period when corms are in summer dormancy

[Janis Ruksans]

The crocus to the right was grown from SRGC-seed received in 2018, Crocus nudiflorus. The one to the left came to me as a blind passenger in a pot with Crocus banaticus from a friend. It looks very attractive, but I´m afraid it´s virus - diseased?

100% sure that it is virus infection!!!

[Janis Ruksans]

I have found a similar  Crocus nudiflorus in my garden and I am afraid it is virused. It is shown with a normal nudiflorus.

I'm sure that it is virus, too. I found few similar in my collection - few between banaticus seedlings and in nudiflorus, I think that some else were dug out, but I didn't pictured sand didn't remember just in which species. Surprisingly many this season, although some 5-7 plants between my thousands is practically nothing, although more than in other years.
This season much more proliferations (semi-double flowers) than usually and more plants with short flower tubes. Crocus boryi - a lot of poorly developed flowers. I think reason is very high temperatures in greenhouse (up to +52 C) during summer dormancy.

[Janis Ruksans]

I was lazy with forum this autumn and mostly posted pictures on my Facebook pages mixed with information about Covid and agitation for vaccination. Flower pictures allowed to rise attention and so more and more people could read about advantages of vaccination and stupidity of antivaxer propaganda. Other problem is resizing of pictures - in FB I resize them but don't must to check their size - sometimes even twice as large than allowed in forum is good for FB, and of course - in forum number of pictures per entry limited to 5.
But now I decided every day to make few entries as all pictures for FB are saved in folder and I will put them now in alphabetic order according species name and will start with 1st October - now will follow crocuses pictured in October.
In this entry C. hakkariensis and C. aleppicus from Israel and Syria with its ally from Israel

[Janis Ruksans]

The next in line are C. archibaldiorum from Iran and C. assumaniae from near Akseki in Turkey

[Janis Ruksans]

Now late blooming Crocus banaticus Snowdrift, few forms of Crocus boryi 16GRA-195 and 197 - both from Crete and another from Peloponnese and as last tiny Crocus cambessedesii

[Janis Ruksans]

and last entry for today another form of Crocus cambessedesii and several from Crocus cartwrightianus.

[Janis Ruksans]

My new "toy" - label printer “P-touch D-450” from “brother” company. Hope that new labels will be more permanent than all "everlasting" special inks and much more information can be added for eventual transplantation of my collection to Botanical Garden of Latvian University. They now found a place and is looking for money to built up new greenhouse where will be transferred my bulb collection. I try to print at least 50 labels every day, so it will take 3-4 months to replace my labels, even not for each pot, but each sample will have at least one printed label.

[ashley]

I've used a smaller, handheld, printer from this company for the last 10 years or so Jānis.  The printed labels last excellently, even outdoors.  However the label rolls from Brother are quite expensive so I normally use generic labels from various Chinese sellers on Ebay.  These last very well too but are much more economical.

[Mariette]

100% sure that it is virus infection!!!

Thank You, Janis! Do You know by what means the virus is spread? Do virus of other plants like cucumber mosaic virus, for instance, affect crocus, too?

[Janis Ruksans]

Yes, some viruses are damaging many different plants - such is cucumber mosaic virus and some others, too. I was researching those problems some 40 years ago, so not remember much from that time. Distributors - some nematodes living in soil, trips, aphids and others. But now I'm only checking colour of leaves (mosaic), shape and colour of flowers and destroying all suspicious plants,

[Janis Ruksans]

Now again some flowers from October - will continue with Crocus cartwrightianus and then Crocus caspius.
Crocus cartwrightianus is ancestor of safran crocus - C. sativus and is very variable in colour.
Crocus caspius is growing well with me, but I'm afraid to offer it in catalogue, as it is more susceptible to bad winter conditions and several times I almost lost it.