Crocus to identify? Post them here....

[ozgur70]

A different individual. But I think the same species.

[Armin]

Özgür,
very beautiful but it is different to the forms of spp. striidi I have as my references. It looks it is a pure white one?
Sorry, no clear idea.
Ibrahim may know better or one of the croconut specialists knowing locality.

[I.S.]

  Özgür, wonderful pictures you just keep on posting, there are a lots of croconuts here who will amire your pictures from wild.
  k1 -  C. danfordiae white form
  k1a   C. danfordiae White form (if it has yellow anthers and if the size is like yellow C. danfordiae! )
  The rest are C. biflorus subsp. tauri and pink form of Colchicum triphyllum.
 I would like to post a picture which is not clear but ıt shows very nice the variation of C. biflorus subsp. tauri (picture send me by friend)

 

[TheOnionMan]

Moved over from page one of Crocus and companion plants in the open garden thread, is the following series of Crocus photos.  I received this plant a number of years ago as C. biflorus pulchricolor, and apparently this is a misidentification.  A member suggested this might in fact be C. kosaninii.  Can anyone confirm this ID.  Thank you.

{{Edit by maggi: check these posts for other ID queries in that thread:
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=4929.msg133551#msg133551

http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=4929.msg133573#msg133573     }}

[tonyg]

Mark - I think that it could well be C kosaninii.  Usually quite small, few leaves, late flowering here and very easy to tell from C biflorus by the corm tunic which is fibrous rather than the papery annulate (rings at the base) tunic of C biflorus.

[TheOnionMan]

Mark - I think that it could well be C kosaninii.  Usually quite small, few leaves, late flowering here and very easy to tell from C biflorus by the corm tunic which is fibrous rather than the papery annulate (rings at the base) tunic of C biflorus.

Thanks Tony.  As soon as spring arrives and the ground thaws, I'll check out the tunics.  My plants are not late flowering here per se, Crocus season is quite condensed and most species flower within days of one another,  Based on the late March photo dates, it flowers early to mid crocus season for me, where the first week of April is the main crocus flush.

[Lesley Cox]

My C. kosaninii flowers as early as late August (February) or as late as October (April). Not sure what makes the difference year to year, perhaps dryness in the early part of the late years, if you see what I mean.

[TheOnionMan]

My C. kosaninii flowers as early as late August (February) or as late as October (April). Not sure what makes the difference year to year, perhaps dryness in the early part of the late years, if you see what I mean.

Lesley, a splendid grouping of flowers there, crisp photograph.  It looks much like my crocus in the overhead view, I'm happy to know the true identity of my misidentified Crocus.  Interesting that you get such a broad range of possible flowering times.  On mine there is almost no variation (in all my spring crocus), they pretty much start late March (in a good year) and end by the second week of April (3 week season, that's it).

[Armin]

Lesley,
a very good photo of C. kosanini.
Does your clone set regular seed?

[Lesley Cox]

Armin, it has set seed, the year before last and I sowed that and have young ones which will probably flower in 2011. It didn't have seed in 2009 as the trough in which it lives became very dry and I even lost a couple of herbaceous things (Phacelia sericea and Gentiana alpina). I'll be sure it has more water at flowering time this year and if there is seed you may like to have it. I can't remember where I got this clone but probably from Marcus Harvey in Tasmania, my principal (only) souce of crocus corms nowadays.

[Lesley Cox]

Mark, once the autumn species have started following some decent rain, (C. pulchellus is always the first), there's really no day when there isn't at least one crocus in flower until late October when C. minimus finishes. It's impossible to say whether some are autumn or winter flowering, and others winter or spring. The main season is late July (always our coldest month) and early August. While some species vary quite a lot in their timing, the order of flowering seems to be pretty much the same each year.

[Armin]

Lesley,
I'd be very pleased if you have some seed excess. My C. kosanini did set only very few small seeds, not sure they are viable.
I'm still investigating if it is related to the lack of bees and other polinators at flowering time or bad weather conditions or if it is simply a sterile clone.

[TheOnionMan]

Mark, once the autumn species have started following some decent rain, (C. pulchellus is always the first), there's really no day when there isn't at least one crocus in flower until late October when C. minimus finishes. It's impossible to say whether some are autumn or winter flowering, and others winter or spring. The main season is late July (always our coldest month) and early August. While some species vary quite a lot in their timing, the order of flowering seems to be pretty much the same each year.

I'm don't know anything about NZ climate zones, nor know what Z9 equates to, but I have to imagine a fairly mild climate.  When I lived near Seattle Washington USA (Pacific Northwest), even though they occassionally had snow and some freezes, it was about 3 zones warmer than my garden in Northeastern USA, and one of the peculiar aspects for me, moving to a milder climate, was that the spring season was drawn out over a period of several months, no big splash, more of a constant trickle... there was never a day, year round, when something wasn't in bloom.  And I remember too, the crocus and other bulbous plants would bloom through this long succession of weeks and months depending on species.  During the 4 years I lived there, I missed the contracted spring bloom in New England, where everything more or less blooms in just a few weeks in an explosion of flowers April and May.

[Lesley Cox]

I think my Zone 9 equates pretty much to the American Z9. Or rather, when I joined Trillium-L some years ago, I was told that that's what I lived in, Zone 9. The east coast tends to be very dry now and mild especially in winter. I suspect the temps are not unlike those of Seattle in general but we are less wet, in the east anyway. Parts of the west coast of the South Island measure their rainfall in metres rather than millimetres!

And yes, there's very little definable division between any two of the seasons except that in spring there's always a day when you know it's spring. There's a special feeling in the air and no matter what else is to be done, you just HAVE to get into the garden. Of course the next day there could be a howling gale off Antarctica and slashing rain. Autumn has its special day too, when there's a sudden bite in the air even though the day is warm, sunny and entirely beautiful. Our climate is entirely unpredictable.

[Otto Fauser]

Lesley , your Cr. kosaninii seems to be identical to mine ,and together with veluchensis and a late fl. form of minimus is always the last one to flower here in late September .
 and as in your garden the main flowering season for the winter flowering ones is in late July -early August .