Crocus October 2008

[Jim]

Hi Maggi,
Thank you again for posting for me. The spiky plant is an Agave parviflora and the Cactus is an Echinocactus. The little bed where these grow is against the front of my house and is South facing. It gets very hot and dry. The Agave and Cactus are perfect companion plants and provide me with something to look at when the bulbs are dormant.
Jim

[David Shaw]

David N, you have discovered a drawback of keeping bulbs/plants outdoors in plastic pots - they retain too much water.
 Until a couple of years ago this presented me with few problems as the weather was dry enough for me to have to add water to the pots frequently during the summer. This now seems to have changed with the amount of rain we are getting. In my case it is Frits and Arisaema that I am growing up to f/s in plastic pots that live outdoors in summer. They have received little water from me but come re-potting time the gitty compost that I use was so wet that I was concerned about the bulbs. Most survived but some had rotted away. This is an issue that I will have to look at next year.

[David Nicholson]

David,you are right of course, apart from the climate plastic pots are a major cause of the problem, but the cost of going back to clays, taking into account how many I would need would be phenomenal. By the way all of my Primulas are grown in clays. I would be interested to know how you intend to deal with the problem. My roofed outdoor growing area solution should ease the wet compost problem but will be directly under a north facing fence so no doubt I shall complain about lack of sun!

[Gerry Webster]

I am full of admiration for people who manage to grow bulbous plants in plastic pots either indoors or outdoors. Several years ago Ingwersen, the famous alpine nursery,  changed to plastic & sold off their old clay pots very cheaply.  I acquired dozens which I use for everything bulbous. These old pots, many hand-made by the look of them, are both beautiful & functional & not at all difficult to clean. Attractive modern ones are quite expensive.

[Anthony Darby]

The spikey thing in the last pic looks like Agave victoriae-reginae?

[Jim]

Hi Anthony,
Yes many of the small Agaves look very similar but this has flowered and is definitely Agave parviflora. The plant itself is not so big but the spike was about 12 feet tall.
Jim

[Maggi Young]

the spike was about 12 feet tall.

Good grief!

[Jim]

Hi All,
I don't know what I was thinking when I wrote that last reply. Although it was rather tall I think the actual height of the Agave flower stalk was about 9 and a half feet. Sorry about that. I guess it's like those fish stories. They keep getting bigger and bigger every time the story is told.
Jim

[Maggi Young]

Agave flower stalk was about 9 and a half feet.

I am still of the same opinion..... Good grief!
That's some height........ so long since I saw agaves in flower I had forgotten hoe tall they can be...... nearest we have in our garden is the spikes of Aciphylla aurea which can make about eight feet.

[David Nicholson]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! What happened to the anorak??

Here are a couple of pics of my Crocus ochroleucus taken today after a short spell on the kitchen window sill to warm it up (the plant that is, not me!A little amber liquid usually works better for me.)

[Maggi Young]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! What happened to the anorak??

I too found a patch of warm sun in the kitchen and decided to ditch the anorak for Hallowe'en!!

Super crocus, David......

[snowdropman]

Here are a couple of pics of my Crocus ochroleucus taken today

David - thanks for posting these photo's - for the past two years I have had a crocus , bought as c. tommasinianus 'Pictus', flower at this time - from my description, Thomas speculated that it was c. ochroleucus ( I could not send him a photo, 'cos I still do not own a camera ) - your photo confirms his ID - many thanks to you & well done Thomas.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Love the side view of the C. ochroleucus David !
Very nice indeed !

[Gerry Webster]

Crocus laevigatus

Ex a Ray Cobb collection (CRO1012), Greece.
The flowers are mostly white, as shown. A few are lilac.

This is a better photo than the one in my post no. 386

[David Nicholson]

Is it the same pot Gerry, if it is they have come on a treat. Nice pic also by the way.