Crocus to identify? Post them here....

[Armin]

Mark,
your sample is not matching to any yellow chrysanthus cv I'm familiar with. It is not Canary bird, right.

Do you have a picture from the top to see style and anthers?
What is the pedal lenght ? 'Quite small' is a relative term...

[Michael J Campbell]

ID please. I got this as Crocus vernus graecus.

[Armin]

Michael,

I can't judge the size of this crocus from your image by my first thought is it is Janis cv. C. tommasinianus x C. x cultorum 'Yalta'.

[Michael J Campbell]

Thanks Armin, It looks like that one ok but this one did not come from Janis, it is from another source that are usually not correctly named.

[Armin]

Michael,
'Yalta' is a nice cultivar and now widely available. I like it.

[Knud]

Hi,
This will probably be an easy one for you crocus experts, and I suspect it might be C. Tommasinianus but am not sure. The bud, and then flower, start off very pale blue, darkening with age. The picture shows it shows it at its darkest, more or less. It blooms early here, normally in March, but will be later this year as they have just started appearing, in spite of there still being frost in the ground most places in the garden. It clumps nicely here, but I would not call it aggressive in any way. I got it from a friend who found it in a protected corner of the "remains" of his grandmother's garden at least ten years after the house was torn down to make way for an industrial site. His grandparents were in that house from about 1920; and I doubt if the garden has been worked after 1980.

Knud

[tonyg]

Hi Knud
Good to meet you again here.  Seems a long time since the Glasgow Discussion weekend.
I think you have indeed got Crocus tommasinianus.  I don't think it is one of the named forms, just the 'species'.  I have many in the garden here and like them just as much as any of the so-called special forms.  It seeds around freely here.

[Janis Ruksans]

Hi,
This will probably be an easy one for you crocus experts, and I suspect it might be C. Tommasinianus but am not sure. The bud, and then flower, start off very pale blue, darkening with age. The picture shows it shows it at its darkest, more or less. It blooms early here, normally in March, but will be later this year as they have just started appearing, in spite of there still being frost in the ground most places in the garden. It clumps nicely here, but I would not call it aggressive in any way. I got it from a friend who found it in a protected corner of the "remains" of his grandmother's garden at least ten years after the house was torn down to make way for an industrial site. His grandparents were in that house from about 1920; and I doubt if the garden has been worked after 1980.

Knud

Could be vernus, too - check leaves. If they are 2-3 mm wide - it is tommasinianus, if 4 mm or wider - vernus.
Janis

[Knud]

Good morning Tony,
Thank you for your reply, good to have the identity confirmed. I found it amazing how this crocus had managed to hang on for so long in a small undisturbed spot with quite heavy industrial activity all around. I have it growing against a tree stump, I will split the clump this year and move it to a few places in the garden. I remember your pictures of crocus lawns at the Discussion Weekend in Glasgow, something to aim for. It was a good weekend, like the other two I have been to; very enjoyable, lots to learn, and always an inspiration.

Well, I am off to eigth less enjoyable hours in front of the PC,

Thanks again,
Knud  

[Knud]

Good morning to you too Janis,
-we must have crossed in the air. I did get a warning before posting, but being a Newbie I didn't take the chance on leaving my "post"; I must read the instruction book.  Thank you for the identifying characteristics, I will check and measure leaf size when they appear, and get down on the ground to take some better photographs. Given the cold spell we are having I think that will be quite a few weeks still.  I gather you are much worse off with this cold than we are, I wish you good luck, and hope it will not be too destructive.

Thanks again,
Knud

[jnovis]

Can you confirm these, please.
The first one is probably Atticus ssp. sublimis ? from the Peloponnese in 2007.
The other one came from AGS seed labelled Vernus in 99. You have to have patience in this game as it was flowering for the first time last week.

[Janis Ruksans]

Can you confirm these, please.
The first one is probably Atticus ssp. sublimis ? from the Peloponnese in 2007.
The other one came from AGS seed labelled Vernus in 99. You have to have patience in this game as it was flowering for the first time last week.

Second picture by habitus, flower shape - typical angustifolius.
Janis

[Armin]

Jim,
you might be right that your first image is a beautiful form of C. atticus.
But subsp. sublimis? - possible but difficult to judge from your image and without study of corm tunics.
Please check: Is the throat glabrous or pubescent? Bract and bracteole equal or unequal in lenght? This may help us further.

I find the dark stem of your sample unusual. I've not seen / I'm not aware of that feature on C. atticus.
Your sample seem to have no yellow center, too (just reflection of yellow pollen in the throat?).
Could both be a hint of some hybrid with C. veluchensis?

If you have a top view image of the open flower would be interesting to see.

[Graeme Strachan]

Has anyone any idea what I have here? It has lightly speckled outer petals and a white style.
It grew from one of the three corms below - the other two haven't flowered yet.

                    thanks

                          Graeme

[tonyg]

Graeme
Is the flower quite small?  It looks almost white with a hint of blue perhaps due to the stippling.  I have grown something similar under the name Crocus biflorus isauricus for about 20 years.  The plant I grow came from a members sales table at an AGS show in the N of England so I do not know more about it than the name on the label.  It has flowers only 1-2cm across on quite long tubes and in many ways looks like Crocus danfordiae.