Crocus in pots March 2010

[mark smyth]

The pale vernus are lovely shades of blue.

[Tony Willis]

Thank you for the kind comments,not such a great day today freezing cold and no sun. A few more out though.

Crocus cvijicii
Crocus veluchensis
Crocus sieberi

all from Greece and a
Crocus flavus from Turkey

[tonyg]

Tony you could do what I used to do - bring a box of Crocus in pots to work

Not on my bike - broken or otherwise! 
Have done it in the dim distant past though when I had sole us eof the car

[Lesley Cox]

Such lovely things from yesterday. My Forum was down all day so quite a lot to catch up on. On the other hand, I did get some other things done.

[TheOnionMan]

Such lovely things from yesterday. My Forum was down all day so quite a lot to catch up on. On the other hand, I did get some other things done.

Hopefully you had time to fertilize your fields of arborescent croci.  As you can see, mine are coming along nicely.

[Lesley Cox]

Yours are getting quite rampant Mark. A total takeover soon I expect.

No, I actually went looking for spring bulbs at the local garden centres. Plenty there but the same old same old. Lots of Iris danfordiae but all brought in from Holland and have been in a chiller for 6 months so that most are tunics with overly dried up innards. I suppose I'll try a few more but it's all a bit depressing really. Precious few crocuses at all except a couple of vars of large dutch. There were some local C. sativus and I'll try a few more of those but I don't get many flowers. Funny, as there are a few (very small) commercial plantings locally, for saffron.

[mark smyth]

I couldnt access the forum from around 8.30pm yesterday. At 1am it was still off line for me

[Maggi Young]

As far as I can fathom,  the Forum was off last night from just after 10pm to early this morning ..... server work, I think.

[Tony Willis]

a couple more out today,the first of

Crocus scardicus
Crocus x gothenburgensis this has pelistericus as the seed parent and scardicus as the pollen. This one is very small flowered compared with its parents

Crocus pelistericus are not even showing buds yet.

[art600]

Yours are getting quite rampant Mark. A total takeover soon I expect.

No, I actually went looking for spring bulbs at the local garden centres. Plenty there but the same old same old. Lots of Iris danfordiae but all brought in from Holland and have been in a chiller for 6 months so that most are tunics with overly dried up innards. I suppose I'll try a few more but it's all a bit depressing really. Precious few crocuses at all except a couple of vars of large dutch. There were some local C. sativus and I'll try a few more of those but I don't get many flowers. Funny, as there are a few (very small) commercial plantings locally, for saffron.

Lesley

Regarding Crocus sativus - I was advised to plant the corms 6" deep in a well manured soil, the vegetable patch would be perfect, and you should get flowers.  The corms will resemble small beetroot after this treatment.

[ashley]

Your scardicus and x gothenburgensis are exquisite Tony, and obviously very happy.  How do you manage them? 

[art600]

Ashley

And he is just as successful with pelistericus - must be the Chorley localised conditions    although I think Tony is an outstanding grower.

[Martin Baxendale]

I think Tony is an outstanding grower.

I'll second that. All of Tony's pics show very healthy and well-grown plants, beautifully presented.   

[Tony Willis]

Your scardicus and x gothenburgensis are exquisite Tony, and obviously very happy.  How do you manage them? 

Thank you for the kind comments.I think much of it is down to plants suiting the conditions and my box of dead labels of those that have not been happy has to be seen to be believed.

I grow the pelistericus, scardicus and hybrids together. They are in clay pots plunged in sand. The compost is peaty and gritty and until this year I have never repotted them. Last summer I gave away a couple of plants of both species and this necessitated me repotting those particular plants with no ill effect. The sand plunge is outside where it never gets any sunlight but is well lit. They are kept wet all year round which is easy in my climate and they never go dormant. The new shoot is visible as the old leaves die off in about September.This year I am trying feeding them for the first time to try and bring on the seedlings a bit faster.

I bring them in to my shady greenhouse as they come in to flower to enjoy them and try for seed which sets each year no problem.

[ashley]

Very interesting & useful Tony; thanks.
Disappointing though to hear that my collection of dead labels is less unique than I thought