Crocus in the garden March 2010

[Armin]

Thomas,
thank you for a picture. Off course I know your C. kosaninii They are lovely.

What are mine? (sorry for the poor quality, pictures from 2009)
Pic.1: striped version with light yellow center ->this should be kosaninii, matching the discription from P.C Nijssen 2008 cat..
Pic.2: uniform blue version - it resembles an ordinary tommie on the picture, I agree, but in reality it was much smaller in growth & flower (but same size as striped version) and different to any of the tommies I have. So I believe(d) it is still a kosaninii (or perhaps a hybrid?).
Pic.3: C. kosaninii from Chris and/or Simon. No yellow center, too. (nobody raised questions when it was posted)

After all, I'm not sure if the yellow center is always a characteristic feature of C. kosaninii.

[Sinchets]

Sorry Armin, I should have gone back in and relabelled that Crocus at the time. It was a Crocus I had as kosaninii but it turned out it was incorrect. It is now labelled as a tommie- but the fact that your picture 2 shows the same/ similar plant means I wasn't the only one who 'was fooled'.

[Armin]

O.k. Simon,
to make it short - I will call mine a tommie too.
Another case of "Impurity", hhm...

[Sinchets]

If it's any consolation, Armin this tommie has always been dwarfer than my others- so maybe it is not just a 'run of the mill' tommie!

[krisderaeymaeker]

Armin and Kris, Crocus kosaninii has to have a yellow throat, see my photos.
Kris' plant looks like a tommie to me, also suggested by the white tube.

Thanks Thomas .Put a new label in.
I have just one remark , this "tommie" grows very slow .Much slower than oher "tommies" .

[TheOnionMan]

More flowers on C. biflorus ssp. isauricus today, but one is different, it has 10 petals!  How unusual is it to get such anomalous flowers?  Do you think that characteristic will hold steady in following years.  Here are two photos of my decempetalous form (in the lower right in each photo).

Sun is bright today that my first batch of photos were completely overexposed, so used a sun baffle to snap these two photos.  You might notice one flower only has 5 petals... I accidentally broke a petal off while clumsily dusting with pollen

[Maggi Young]

We have the occasional crocus that will throw a flower with these extra petals most years .... though having said that, next year none will! One or two have proved quite constant over some years, though I cannot for the life of me think of any names right now!

I can't get over how dry your soil surface looks, McMark, when you had snow cover so recently. How cheerful the crocus flowers are.... who could resist them?

[TheOnionMan]

We have the occasional crocus that will throw a flower with these extra petals most years .... though having said that, next year none will! One or two have proved quite constant over some years, though I cannot for the life of me think of any names right now!

I can't get over how dry your soil surface looks, McMark, when you hasd snow cover so recently. How cheerful the crocus flowers are.... who could resist them?

Thanks Maggi.  So far as "soil surface", what you're seeing is the dried, sun-bleached decomposed pine-bark mulch layer.  The soil beneath is fairly moist. But besides any ground moisture from snow melting over the last two weeks, we haven't had rain... just a string of sunny days, tho I'm not complaining.

[Lesley Cox]

The one in the lower picture almost looks "hose-in-hose" doesn't it?

From previous postings in previous years, I recall a number of species and vars throwing double flowers but most have been reported as reverting to type the following year. I think Thomas posted a yellow which he says is constant. Could have been flavus maybe, or a chrysanthus form.

[mark smyth]

That 10 petalled Crocus is very desirable

[PDJ]

A few crocuses flowering in the garden.

1  Miss Vain
2  tommasianus 'Claret'
3  tommasianus 'Claret'
4  Tricolor
5  Zwanenburg Bronze

[Thomas Huber]

Thanks Thomas .Put a new label in.
I have just one remark , this "tommie" grows very slow .Much slower than oher "tommies" .

Quite possible, Kris. In each species some plants grow better, others never increase vegetatively.

Armin, do you have a corm photo of your striped kosaninii?

PDJ, the true 'Miss Vain' doesn't have a yellow throat like your plant!

[Armin]

Thomas,
sorry, no picture of the corm. I lifted the basket last July. Unfortunately the corms split off in many tiny ones.
I cleaned the corms and laid them deeper. Have to wait until (if) they flower to clean the stock from the dwarfer tommies.

[Ragged Robin]

Your were right, Tonyg, up it popped when I wasn't looking - the first Crocus Vernus (Balkans, dark tip petals) in my Alpine 'Meadow'  I'm absolutely thrilled, thanks so much 

More showing so I hope to have a patch soon 

[Sinchets]

It looks glad to be 'home' Robin.