Crocus in both hemispheres August 2008

[Lesley Cox]

Well I googled too, and got Myddelton (not Myddleton). Anyone got one of his books? Otto?

[Lesley Cox]

Idiot! I have one myself! "My Garden in Spring" but a quick flick through doesn'r show any mention of the name of his house. I'll have a better look later.

[Lesley Cox]

I googled again, using his name rather then the house name and many references came up with Myddelton, so I'll go with that. Lots of his books are still around from Amazon and elsewhere and there is one called "E.A.Bowles - The Crocus King." Funny, I though that was Thomas Huber.

[Paul T]

Howdy All,

A couple of pics from today.  First is of cvijicii sitting on the soil surface like a glowing egg yolk!    And hopefully the other two pics are of Crocus veluchensis.  From web pics I think it looks about right, but can anyone please confirm or deny?  Have shifted a little pollen that I could find on the former onto the latter, but no pollen present yet on the latter as it is only just opened this afternoon (and with storm clouds heading our way I don't think it will be out for long today either!!  )

[art600]

Paul

A very dark form of veluchensis compared to the ones I saw in northern Greece.  Very nice to have.

[tonyg]

First impression is that it is C vernus vernus Paul but I have no experience of them in the wild.  Art and others do have this knowledge and that gives their opinions more weight than mine. 

[art600]

Tony
I would always take your opinion over mine.  You are, after all, an 'expert'

[Oron Peri]

Hi Tony,

You wanted to see the frig....
so here it is

I grow in it C. colchicum, parvifolium, elegans ans some coum ssp. most dormant at the moment
accept C. colchicunm that is practically an evergreen in this conditions, starts to make new leaves at this time of year.

I don't find this fact very odd [just a little...], i mean there are heated green houses so why not have the opposite...
oron

[Thomas Huber]

Thanks for the photos, Oron - what a wonderful crocus this is!!!
If you have more I can help you to resize them if you wish.

Paul, I'm with Tony, this crocus looks more like vernus than veluchensis.
But I always find these two difficult to distinguish as both are very
variable in flower colour and leaf characterics. The main difference
is the absence of the prophyl in veluchensis, which vernus has, but
this is only the theorie - I can't convert this into practice  

[Paul T]

Tony and Thomas,

Thanks for the input.  If they're that close, how DO I check it's right then?  When I look up "Prophyll" (it didn't accept it with one l) it says "a plant structure that resembles a leaf", so I'm no closer to knowing what you are meaning about the presence or absence of a prophyll?  It's pretty, whatever it is, but I would like to know if it is correctly labelled.  I'll try crossing it with the cvijicii anyway once it produces pollen, but by the sounds of it that might be pointless?

[tonyg]

Tony
I would always take your opinion over mine.  You are, after all, an 'expert'

Expert is a relative term - I am not a field expert where crocus are concerned .... but if you want to take me with you next time ... There are too many things I don't know for me to think of myself as an expert

[tonyg]

Oron - Thanks!
You are quite right, it is not odd.  You are simply trying to provide the environment that the plants need.  I remember seeing refridgerated benches in the old alpine house at Kew.  They also had fans running constantly too.
Great to see those wild crocus pics.  Did you take any shots of the wider habitat?

[Paul T]

Oron,

I wouldn't mind that refridgerated setup myself.  Could grow a few more of the alpine things that don't like my summer heat.  There are orchid boxes you can buy as well, which are set up as a constant environment where you can keep temperatures and humidity perfectly controlled.  A bit bigger a scale though.  Something I'd love to have, but I'd need a bigger house to accomodate.  I quite like you're setup as it does the job it is supposed to, and allows good viewing at the same time.  Great stuff!! 

[Oron Peri]

Tony,

here are pics from the habitat of C. moabiticus in Jordan,
in the second pic you can notice the Jordan valley with Dead Sea and Hebron mountains at the Palestinian territory

[Oron Peri]

Sorry,

At the first pic you can see the Dead Sea and Hebron Mountains on its other side