Crocus January 2010

[annew]

Good grief!  You need one of those long tray thingies you can get from garden centres to put window boxes on. Sorted.

[mark smyth]

THanks for the information Janis

[Ragged Robin]

Janis, what an amazing story of friendship and passion that led to your naming of the crocus 'Michael Hoog's Memory'...thank you for explaining how it all came about, adding an extra dimension to the enjoyment of admiring this beauty.

[dominique]

Thank you Janis. Here the wether is grey but not cold these days. Two forms of Crocus chrysanthus, sieberi Hubert Edelsten (Do you know who is this person, Janis ?)

[dominique]

Crocus biflorus adamii and in the garden as usual, Crocus imperati De Jager

[tonyg]

I think Hubert Edelsten was a friend of E A Bowles the raiser of this supposed hybrid between C sieberi sieberi and C sieberi atticus.

[dominique]

Thank you Tony

[Janis Ruksans]

Thank you Janis. Here the wether is grey but not cold these days. Two forms of Crocus chrysanthus, sieberi Hubert Edelsten (Do you know who is this person, Janis ?)

Crocus xsieberi 'Hubert Edelsten' is hybrid raised by Mr. Hubert D. Mc. Edelsten. He got 2 seedlings crossing Cretan C. sieberi with Greek C. atticus (I regard both as different species, separating Cretan plants from mainland plants, respectively I'm rising status of subsp. atticus). One of them was named 'Hubert Edelsten' and it got FCC in 1924. The later seedling he named 'Lingwood Beauty', it was larger and more richly banded, but I didn't hear about its growing somewhere now. It is not listed in International Register.  I don't know profession (occupation) of Mr. Edelsten, sorry.
We had coldest night during all records for 27th January.
Janis

[Maggi Young]

Some more information on Mr Edelsten from the collections information section of the Natural History Museum: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/    :
"Hubert McDonald Edelsten (1877-1959) was a keen Lepidopterist and contributed hundreds of notes and articles to "The Entomologist". During the First World War he served in the Royal Naval Air Ambulance Service. After the War he became Secretary to the Committee for the Protection of British Insects. In 1939 he joined the Ministry of Agriculture and was concerned with the entomology of food crops. This work included the study of the Colorado Beetle. Publications included an account of the Lepidoptera of Cambridgeshire (with John Fryer) in the Victoria County History of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely, Vol.1. (1938) and a revision of Richard South's The Moths of the British Isles (1939). Edelsten was an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society of London and an Associate in charge of British Lepidoptera at The Natural History Museum, London.
 Hubert McDonald Edelsten's collection of 780 Lepidoptera specimens and 208 Odonata specimens was presented by his daughter to The Natural History Museum, London."


Also, from  the 2003 archives of the Pacific Bulb Society: Sat Feb 8  2003 :  Jim Waddick made mention that he thought the sister seedling to C.  'Hubert Edelsten',  might still be in cultivation at that time. This is the one named 'Lingwood Beauty'

[mark smyth]

Lost label - is this plant too orange to be chrysanthus Fuscotinctus

[mark smyth]

Some more of korolkowii Snow Leopard. One petal has an anther on it's side complete with pollen

[dominique]

Janis and Maggi, very thank you for these interesting details of the H.Edelsten's life.

[dominique]

Very nice Mark

[mark smyth]

Where is Thomas Hubi this Crocus season?

[Tony Willis]

Some crocus I brought intop the kitchen in order to get them to open today. It is cold and has been so dark for the last five days we have had the light on in the house all day. They are elongating in the plunge and falling over without ever having opened.

Three different clones of Crocus chrysanthus
Crocus fleischeri
Two clones of Crocus olivieri
A Crocus hybrid raised from seed from an original plant of Crocus biflorus ssp pulchriclor crossed with Crocus chrysanthus.
Crocus biflorus pulchricolor a white form