Crocus in both hemispheres August 2008

[Lesley Cox]

Thomas is digging his Crocus biflorus ssp. taurii and mine is in flower today though rather a prey to long days of rain and snow!

[Lesley Cox]

Two new ones out for me today are Crocus biflorus ssp. taurii


and C. b. ssp. biflorus from seed collected on Rhodes

[art600]

Lesley

Very nice Crocus.  I will leave it to the experts to comment, but the first one does not look like taurii to me - more like weldenii.

[Paul T]

Lesley,

Love that biflorus.  Great markings!!  Isn't ssp taurii much darker than that?  I don't still have a photo of mine, but my memory (perhaps rather incorrect) doesn't look much like that one... I think of it as quite dark?

[Tony Willis]

Lesley

lovely crocus but I agree with Arthur on the first one.My first impression before I read his comment was that it was weldenii

[Thomas Huber]

Arthur and Tony, please remember, that ssp weldenii NEVER has a yellow throat!!!
Lesley's plant looks exactly like ssp tauri to me. And Paul, please hold in mind,
that in the wild ssp tauri is, like most crocus, very variable!

[Thomas Huber]

Thomas, looking forward to the show.

Maybe next fall I will pickup some fall flowering crocus, not sure how well they would do here.

Which ones would you suggest to start with, and are easy to grow?

Thanks for info.

Guff, the best crocus for starting an autumn lawn is speciosus and kotschyanus.
You can also try banaticus, nudiflorus, pulchellus.

[Paul T]

Fair enough.  I think I shall stay out of commenting on future Crocus IDs. 

Flowering now for me are 'Blue Pearl' and 'Cinderella' which I have photographed to show comparisons of striping and form etc, providing they are correct of course.  Also 'Remembrance', which is an absolutely massive flower!!

[art600]

Arthur and Tony, please remember, that ssp weldenii NEVER has a yellow throat!!!
Lesley's plant looks exactly like ssp tauri to me. And Paul, please hold in mind,
that in the wild ssp tauri is, like most crocus, very variable!

Thomas
Thank you for your clarification - I only added weldenii as an afterthought.  Have NEVER seen taurii looking like Lesley's, even though I have seen much variation.

[art600]

Paul

Your lawn is working well.  Next year should be outstanding.

[Paul T]

Arthur,

Not quite a lawn..... single sleeper it's a raised garden bed, topped with sand.  The details are in the "Evolution of a Crocus Garden" thread, if you're interested.  In a lawn I wouldn't be able to keep track of them, and I do like to share corms with people when they're dormant.  if I couldn't find them, I couldn't share them!    This way, they're planted in baskets and I can easily retrieve and repot them during summer, sharing out where necessary.

[art600]

Poetic licence - cannot imagine how difficult it is to keep a proper lawn going in your climate without rain.

I agree sharing Crocus is a major part of growing them.

[Paul T]

Arthur,

It is currently illegal to use town water to water lawns.  You can recycle water from inside, or use water if you have a tank, but you can be fined for watering the lawn, even by hand.  No sprinklers are allowed, although drippers are acceptable at certain times.  Don't know what I'd do without the dripper systems, particularly in summer. 

[Lesley Cox]

There are some reply about my crocuses in my inbox but not here. Anyway, in reply to one of them, I have the biflorus ssp. taurii as that from Marcus Harvey, a first flowering this season. If incorrect, I'd rather know thanks. It is deeper coloured both in and out than the pic suggests.

[Lesley Cox]

Thank you Thomas. You've restored my faith in Marcus whom I've found very reliable with names.