Crocus November 2009

[Gerry Webster]

Maybe there are other late forms of C.laevigatus out there on other islands, but they just haven't been 'found' yet.

Simon - according to Brian Mathew, late flowering forms (mid Feb to early April) occur, & have been collected, on a number of the Cyclades islands (Andros, Naxos & Seriphos) Not too far for you to make a seed collecting trip!

[Sinchets]

Well we do keep promising the car a relaxing trip on a car ferry sometime soon!

[Melvyn Jope]

During a visit to the Peloponnese last week we experienced similar weather to those travelling in Turkey, serious thunderstorms to start with which caused damage and closure of mountain roads resulting in changes to our travel plans then glorious sunshine at the end of our stay.
The following images of Crocus show that most plants were affected by rain damage but still opening as soon as there was a break in the cloud.
Please feel free to correct any that are mis-named but I think they are:-
Crocus boryi
Crocus hadriaticus, many plants across the area, some with huge flowers.
Crocus goulymi in the usual significant nimbers, especially around Areopoli and Monemvassia.
Crocus niveus, a bit late for this and only a few plants left in flower by the road to Pirgos Dirou.
Crocus boryi, probably the Crocus most commonly encountered on this trip.
The last two images are of what I am advised is an aberrant form of Crocus hadriaticus which I found near Mt Didima.

[Maggi Young]

It is really super to hear from all you travelling folk.... I hope you are cheered to  know that
the weather was equally bad here most of that time  but if you had stayed here you wouldn't have seen the flowers!

Good to see you managed to squeeze in the odd cyclamen, among all those great crocus ,  Melvyn. 

[tonyg]

Maybe there are other late forms of C.laevigatus out there on other islands, but they just haven't been 'found' yet.
Tony your blue-centred white C.cartwightianus is beautiful, but is it a garden selection or a wild one. It would be interesting to know where in the species' range it came from if it is from the wild.

Simon - it is 2nd generation that I have raised ex a CEH collection, CEH 613 from Evvia, so it has wild roots!  I think PC has it on his website list so you can check it out there.  From memory this is a variable collection, not all are white.  Mine are variable in the amount of blue in the throat.

[Melvyn Jope]

This group of images shows some of the variants that we found in Crocus biflorus ssp melantherus. We saw this plant in huge numbers from near Leonidi to Mt Didima. The plants shown with the spotted outer petals were, as has been observed before, very much in the minority with less than 1% in a population showing this characteristic.

[ashley]

Just stunning 

[art600]

Melvyn
You told me the melantherus were good, but not that good   

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Great show Melvyn !!!! 

[Sinchets]

Maybe there are other late forms of C.laevigatus out there on other islands, but they just haven't been 'found' yet.
Tony your blue-centred white C.cartwightianus is beautiful, but is it a garden selection or a wild one. It would be interesting to know where in the species' range it came from if it is from the wild.

Simon - it is 2nd generation that I have raised ex a CEH collection, CEH 613 from Evvia, so it has wild roots!  I think PC has it on his website list so you can check it out there.  From memory this is a variable collection, not all are white.  Mine are variable in the amount of blue in the throat.

Thanks, Tony. I found the pic Gerry showed last year of his plant- so quite variable indeed. I also found the collection site on Evia- we haven't been that far south on the island yet.
Melvyn- lovely pics! How many kms did you clock up? Leonidio to Mt Didima! 

[Janis Ruksans]

Edit by Maggi: this post was made in the "Hunt for Crocus wattiorum" thread ( now relocated to the Travel Section :http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=4511.0 ) ... this post  has been moved back here at Janis' request, since it is purely concerning Crocus.

C. wattiorum surely was worth the "trouble" - I love these black anthered Crocus species !  Brilliant Cyclamen as well - really outstanding foliage !!  

Those with black anthers belongs to my favourites, too. Unfortunately I didn't saw much of wattiorum this autumn in my collection. When I left for Turkey they only just started blooming, after returning I went to hospital, but how they looks today you can see on last picture. All others are from previous season.
Janis

[Janis Ruksans]

This group of images shows some of the variants that we found in Crocus biflorus ssp melantherus. We saw this plant in huge numbers from near Leonidi to Mt Didima. The plants shown with the spotted outer petals were, as has been observed before, very much in the minority with less than 1% in a population showing this characteristic.

Superb pictures! I too found only very few with spotted back of petals last autumn on other localities.
Janis

[Janis Ruksans]

Mistery of Crocus 'Purple Heart' solved!
As I wrote earlier, I got this one from Antoine Hoog (France) and searching of its origin I asked Antoine from which Dutch company he baught this (see note from Paul Christians catalogue). Today got reply from Antoine which I'm copying here:

"Crocus ‘Purple Heart’ was named by me. Paul Christian made a mistake; maybe he does not wish to name his supplier.
I selected this from a seed stock of Crocus niveus. This was the Crocus niveus from Dutch cultivation, itself rather a mystery. It has been grown by Willem van Eeden, Jaap Zweeris and certainly others. I have been wondering about the shape of the corm. It has a flat base and does not look like the C. niveus I have from Greece. In flower it looks identical to my C. hadriaticus ‘Jumbo’, a large flowered selection from C. hadriaticus. So I believe this “C. niveus” is in fact C. hadriaticus. Possibly the other parent of C. ‘Purple Heart’ is C. cartwrightianus. This is a personal guess. But it flowers rather later than both C. hadriaticus and C. cartwrightianus."

So you can see that suggestion about possible hybrid between hadriaticus and cartwrightianum most possibly is correct!

Janis

[Gerry Webster]

Mistery of Crocus 'Purple Heart' solved!

So you can see that suggestion about possible hybrid between hadriaticus and cartwrightianum most possibly is correct!

Janis

Congratulations Simon!
It seems, after all, that Paul Christian's attribution to C. niveus, although mistaken, has some basis.

[Sinchets]

Thanks for the information, Janis. Thanks also, Gerry 
Does anyone know if C.hadriaticus grows on Evia? It would be interesting to know if it is possible that the Polipotamos collection -CEH 613- is from a naturally occuring hybrid of the 2 species.
It has also been great to see all these 'biflorus' type Crocus with back anthers. Has anyone seen the populations of  C.biflorus stridii flowering in the wild?