Crocus in the garden March 2010

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Wonderful picture Simon !!!
Great contrast ! 

[Sinchets]

Thanks, Luc- less contrast today as they are all under 10cm of fresh snow   

[Ragged Robin]

Love your crocus photo Simon - great perspective....sorry it's once again covered in snow 

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Thanks, Luc- less contrast today as they are all under 10cm of fresh snow   

 

[TheOnionMan]

Normally C. vitellinus is the first crocus to bloom here, maybe it would have been first if the initial few buds weren't nipped off by a squirrel  

But I was completely taken by surprise yesterday, with the ground still mostly frozen, the first flowers of C. biflorus ssp. isauricus popped open, a full two weeks earlier than they have ever flowered.  Over the weekend we had unusually warm and sunny days, no doubt what induced the early bloom.  Today, while still sunny, there's a stiff cold wind and they are struggling to open again.

[art600]

Mark

The Crocus biflorus are an excellent colour and look to be very healthy.  Can you recall the source?

[Armin]

MarkMc,
a wonderful display! I concur Arthur they look strong and healthy.

[TheOnionMan]

Mark

The Crocus biflorus are an excellent colour and look to be very healthy.  Can you recall the source?

My bulbs came from Jane McGary, but I do not know their provenance.  Since C. vitellinus is the only other crocus in bloom now, I dabbled some vitellinus on my biflorus 

[art600]

Thanks Mark

[TheOnionMan]

Not sure if this thread is where I should ask the following question, but with so many Crocus experts... here goes.

I get prolific seed production on many spring flowering Crocus, but can't say I've ever found seed on any of the fall blooming species.  Just poking around the foliage on C. sativus, asumaniae, pallasii, I don't see any sign of seed capsules.  On C. asuminiae, I see the membranous sheaths of the spent flowers, but no swelling below to indicate seed. When is seed ripe on fall blooming crocus?  Maybe I don't have the right pollinators, or our winters too hard to allow autumn species to set seed?

[Tony Willis]

The seed on both autumn and spring flowering species  ripens about the same time which with me is usually April.

The autumn ones set seed and the capsule tends to sit below the surface until about now when they start to elongate and are clearly visible.

I always help out with a paintbrush  if I want seed and do not rely on insects.

It does not  help if when they are flowering if a warm day is followed by a cold night either in spring or autumn. It would appear a few consecutive warm days and nights helps the pollen grow down the tube and sets the seed.

[mark smyth]

Crocus in a raised bed

[Sinchets]

The bees do all of our work for us in autmn and the C.cancellatus have had evident pods on them since before Christmas. The C.pallasii pods are still underground- I had a poke around a few days ago so I know they are the way up. Do you notice any seedlings around your autumn species Mark?

[TheOnionMan]

Do you notice any seedlings around your autumn species Mark?

Only once!  My C. niveus died out a few years ago, but this past autumn I found a single seedling in bloom, a couple feet away from where niveus was.

[Sinchets]

  So the chances are that the bees have been at them then. We have quite a few very noticeable 2 year old self sown seedlings in the garden this year. As I am not the world's tidiest gardener I often forget to look for seed when it is ripe- and by the time it is the Crocus are all overgrown with their companion plantings- so the ants and whateve else do the sowing for me.