Crocuses in June - pots

[Janis Ruksans]

Just noted that pots with Crocus scharojanii almost lost leaves - so time to replant came. It is surprisingly early, normally I'm doing it in middle July. But now i found that all stocks of scharojanii subsp. lazicus started forming new roots, and one pot with largest corms had new shoots 5-6 cm long and new roots of same length. Type subspecies (from Caucasus) had smaller roots, only up to 0,5 cm long and var. flavus only shows root tips, it allways is last to bloom. After very serious decreasing of stocks during last 3 years due attack of maybug warms, corms looks well recovering and one stock even increased vegetatively and this was the first season when I got few seeds of var. flavus and Caucasian type subspecies. Hope subsp. lazicus will bloom well and after handpollinating I will receive next year seeds of it, too.

Greatest part of crocuses lost leaves. Still are green potted banaticus, palistericus, scardicus and gotoburgensis; on field still green are all C. veluchensis stocks.
Janis

[Lesley Cox]

The first of my winter crocuses are starting at last, laevigatus, in the main, with a few caspius still and some new ones from Marcus Harvey showing colour. Some others are well into leaf and I'm pleased to see that C. olivieri 'Chocolate Soldier' has 3 shoots this year.

[tonyg]

A rare June crocus here .... Thanks to Lesleys' generosity .  Received in late winter, well in root, this Crocus biflorus ssp alexandrii is a beauty.  (Lesley, there have been 4 flowers in all!)  They are lovely and compact and do not seem to mind the heatwave we are having, although I have kept them a little shaded and well watered.  I wonder when the next flowering of this accession will be?

[Maggi Young]

Now that's a rare treat in June.....even if the weather is trying hard to regress to early spring. 

[Lesley Cox]

Tony, I'm so pleased they are coming along. Hard to say what will happen next, but hopefully once they die down their next showing will be nearer to the correct time. Oddly, I also have one in flower, from a corm that was accidentally lifted and left on the surface when I dug yours. So the whole plant is visible. The others are just beginning to put leaves through, flowers perhaps a month a way.

[Martin Baxendale]

I'm getting up the courage to dig up what has become my C. nudiflorus bed this summer. It started out as a high-humus bed for various plants but has ended up a solid carpet or meadow of nudiflorus leaves, with a few clumps of nice heuffelianus that seeded in amongst the nudiflorus (I lifted the heuffelianus clumps in flower as the corms are so similar to nudiflorus). The bed is about 2m X 2m and pretty solid with nudiflorus leaves, so I'm wondering just how many nudiflorus corms I'm going to find. 1,000? 5,000? 10,000? Whatever it turns out to be, they'll take a lot of counting.

[Otto Fauser]

Lesley , your form of C. biflorus ssp. alexandrii is the darkest and most beautyful one I have seen . mine are all white on the inside of the segments , only the outside of the 3 outer segments is violet-blue . It is hard to see on the photo , but has your form a yellow centre ? if so , then I think it could be
biflorus ssp. pulchricolor .

[Janis Ruksans]

Lesley, yours alexandrii is phantastic! Never before saw something similar.
Now very busy in garden working 14-16 hours in day, so rarely watching forum. Must to check it more often. In any course many thanks for keeping such form and to Tony for showing it. At present only few crocuses are replanted, but they looks good. Not so nice wild hyacinths and Alliums.
Janis

[Lesley Cox]

Thank you Janis, yes, it's a lovely form and seems quite vigouous. I bought it originally as C. aerius.

Otto, no, there is no yellow throat. After realizing it was not C. aerius, I thought it was C. biflorus pulchricolor, and sent a few to Thomas in Hessen, as that, but when they flowered, it was Thomas himself who said they were biflorus alexandri, because there is no yellow in the throat.

To be honest, they are not really quite as dark as in Tony's picture but still a lovely form.

[Paul T]

They are a gorgeous colour Tony/Lesley.  Beautiful!!

[Calvin Becker]

Although June is well past, this flowered for me on 21 June.

The first Crocus flower that I have seen in reality so I was quite excited to see it and took far too many photos! Is this Crocus niveus by the way?

[Lesley Cox]

They certainly look like niveus and a very nice form too, with strongly lilac outer petals. My so-called "lilac" form is just barely coloured, very nearly white.

[Rogan]

Calvin, it flowered! Well done!

[Calvin Becker]

They certainly look like niveus and a very nice form too, with strongly lilac outer petals. My so-called "lilac" form is just barely coloured, very nearly white.

I nearly PM'ed you to offer you a corm when they go dormant and then I remembered your customs restrictions

[Calvin Becker]

Calvin, it flowered! Well done!

I thought I was going to miss the flower as I was away for a week and thought that it would probably be open and be over by the time I got home. Luckily it decided to wait and I didn't have to deem this the 'year of the missed crocus flower'!