Crocus November 2009

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Gorgeous Crocus Oron !!
All equally beautiful !  Veneris is so elegant !! 

 Hmm, yes, but a little skinny for my taste! 

Needs some Belgian chocolate to fatten it up 

mmm... obviously this can be taken care of... 

[Hans A.]

Thanks for all the superb pictures, really a droolïng thread

[Oron Peri]

Thanks to you all and...i got the message, i will feed my C. veneris some Belgian choclate, [not sure that this is what it lives on in Cyprus...] 

A few more species opened this morning.

[Armin]

Janis,
you have nice color variants of C. goulimyi. Regret the damages by roe deers but guess they leked the sweet flowers for a desert. A fence would may keep them off your fields? I remember Luit reported in last spring about massive problems in dutch narcissus fields by roe deer, too.

Oron,
I particularly like your C. allepicus and C. hyemalis pictures. Very beautiful!
Thanks for showing.

Just noticed today in my garden spring flowering C. biflorus subsp. biflorus, subsp. tauri and C. imperati have already grown 5cm long leaves... Quite early I think - isn't it? 

[mark smyth]

You are not the only one, Armin. My korolkowii Dystictus has a flower bud above ground

Just when I thought my autumn flowerers were over a couple come up

cancellatus cancellatus actually goulimyi from the bulb sale.
laevigatus AH0138

[mark smyth]

Oron, do you get many wet days that ruin the flowers of your Crocus?

[Janis Ruksans]

Not a long ago we discussed about Crocus 'Purple Heart'. As a lot of buds came out during those days, yesterday I brought pot with this beauty inside and in warmer and dry air flowers nicely opened in few hours. They didn't close in night - my be for temperature and air humidity, but I think it confirms presence of C. cartwrightianus blood in it. Now I brought pot back to greenhouse and will check reaction of flowers cooler and moist air. Although today is the highest temperature ever recorded in 21st of November, full degree higher than last time in 21st November of 1944.
Janis

[Janis Ruksans]

Flowers of various forms of C. cartwrightianus stay open in greenhose day and night. I'm attaching few pictures made today.
Janis

[Oron Peri]

Oron, do you get many wet days that ruin the flowers of your Crocus?

Fantastic photos as usual Mark,
In a good year we receive 34-50 days of rain in my region, the rest is mostly sunny days.
Generally, the high temperatures and dry winds causing flowers to die earlier here...

This morning this tiny gem is in bloom, less than 2 cm across.
 exactly three years from when it was sown.

 Crocus  cambessedesii

[Janis Ruksans]

And last entry for today. Shortly ago I showed picture of C. goulimyi 'Harlequin'. This is selected by John Fielding. During my visit to Peloponnese I discovered another similar form which I named 'New Harlequin'. Only time will show which one is better. Still blooms C. longiflorus from Nebrodi range. Just started blooming C. cambessedesii - not so abundantly as year before, but still looks very nice. Seems that this summer was too cold to induce abundant blooming, may be still I feel influence of last winters frost damage resulted in smaller corms.
Janis

[Oron Peri]

Not a long ago we discussed about Crocus 'Purple Heart'. As a lot of buds came out during those days, yesterday I brought pot with this beauty inside and in warmer and dry air flowers nicely opened in few hours. They didn't close in night - my be for temperature and air humidity, but I think it confirms presence of C. cartwrightianus blood in it. Now I brought pot back to greenhouse and will check reaction of flowers cooler and moist air. Although today is the highest temperature ever recorded in 21st of November, full degree higher than last time in 21st November of 1944.
Janis

Janis,
'Purple heart' is a beauty.
it seems to have also palasii blood in it, may be a hybrid of the two species ?

[Janis Ruksans]

'Purple heart' is a beauty.
it seems to have also palasii blood in it, may be a hybrid of the two species ?

As I wrote something earlier it is rised by Antoine Hoog (France) from doubtful seed of C. niveus, but Antoine suppose that this is hybrid of cartwrightianus with hadriaticus, and I think he is right.
Janis

[Janis Ruksans]

Checking again 'Purple Heart' I found that flowers closed for night when they were replaced to greenhouse, not so tight as hadriaticus but in any case they didn't left open as it is in all my stocks of cartwrightianus. So certainly it isn't pure species.
Janis

[Janis Ruksans]

Interesting form of Crocus kotschyanus (HKEP-9205) I bought in 2007 from AH. Previous autumn I noted that it starts to form leaves during blooming. I supposed that it is only seasonal abnormality, but this autumn this feature is even more prominent. The first picture is maid some two weeks ago, just after returning from Turkey - you can see the leave tips showed out of pot, second picture is maid today, now leave are up to 7 cm long! No one other Crocus kotschyanus acquisition shows leave at present.
Janis

[Gerry Webster]

Crocus cartwrightianus 'Pale Clone'

Janis - Do you know anything about this? Is it one of Antoine Hoog's selections?