Crocus: November 2010

[Melvyn Jope]

Crocus boryii in flower in Corfu last week. It is all over the island, in some places in considerable numbers, I think it is the only Crocus species to be found on the island.

[Maggi Young]

How lovely,  Melvyn.... a sight to make me smile, thanks.

[Armin]

Pascal,
thank you for the details of virus growths/spreading and commercial growers treatment. No objections from my side.

As a matter of fact it is impossible to grow modern rose hybrids without proactive treatment with fungicides and systematic insecticides.
Bof June with the first very hot summer days I realized the start of infestation with mites. I immediately sprayed 3 times a systemic insecticide without any success!
The mites got resistent against the agent Dimethoat I used over the last 15 years I grow roses... (I didn't notice that the substance is since this year no longer recommended against mites, too. )
 
After leaves got already brownish with visible mite web, the use of rape oil was the genius thought to end the tragedy.
The successful treatment of mites needs to be repeated 2-3times to kill all the new hatched mites from surviving eggs...
Last time I applied it again in September when I noticed aphids and downey mildew.
The advantage of rape oil over mineral oil it is ecologially harmless and cheap.
It works excellent!

Tony,
good to know you have everything under control

Mark,
does Lecithine in high dose help?

Melvyn,
very lovely C. boryii from the wild.

[Gerry Webster]

Crocus boryii in flower in Corfu last week. It is all over the island, in some places in considerable numbers, I think it is the only Crocus species to be found on the island.

Beautiful Melvyn. How satisfying to be in the right place at the right time!

[YT]

YT - welcome to the world of croconuts. Great to have the first crocusgrower from Japan with us. Did you ever try crocus in the open garden? In your climate it should be no problem I guess. Most of them will feel like in their native habitat around the Mediterranean Sea.

Hi Thomas, Thank you for your welcome Yes, I’ve already tried growing nudiflorus, longiflorus and niveus with some other dwarf bulbs and perennials in my garden about 5 years ago. We have very wet rainy season during June and July (the monsoon) in Japan so I made a mound with well drained blended soil (sand grid, pumice and Akadama etc.) and volcanic stones to avoid bulbs rotting under such high humidity and temperature condition. At last I planted bulbs and plants, and went to bed and dreamed the mound covered with my plants The next morning I found all my longiflorus bulbs were dug up roughly and there was a stinky brownish object there I removed it and replanted bulbs again. Several days later, a Pseudolysimachion sieboldianum flew away and same stinky object there again I realised I made a luxurious cats toilet! I tried protecting my mound from cats and took many steps but it was impossible to keep my mound away from cats completely Then, my little gems got serious damages day by day and I was exhausted fighting against cats Now I’m growing almost my dwarf bulbs in pots or container (except Ipheion and grape Muscari) and all happy

Armin, so I'll try my crocus in the open garden again some day

[Armin]

Tatsuo,
many of bulb lovers know your problem with cats very well! My family owns a cat, too.

I admit I can't keep off my and neighbours cats from misusing the raised beds but one method to limit the amount of 'brownish objects' is to use a top layer of sharp gravel.
As finer the material as easier and comfortable it is for the cats to dig their toilet pothole.

Further I can recommend to use plastic baskets for corms and bulbs to prevent from being pulled out.
Usual cats learn quickly that they can't dig if they feel the edges of the baskets or see the plastic labels(!).

I have also left some area unplanted - a concession to their effective work against rodents.
An effective method is to top your raised bed with a wire mesh. But that's not looking very nice in a garden.

[Hans A.]

Beautyful pictures, Melvyn!

Hans,
it is a pleasure you joined the croconuts

Thanks Armin , I resisted long time because of lack of space to start to grow a larger number of croci, but the crazy croconut Thomas and the great pictures on this forum convinced me...
I still have not found the button to hide all the threads which show not Iris - so not only more and more Crocus but also Arums, Biarums, Cyclamen, Galanthus.... invade my too small Garden

Thomas - thanks will mark and separate this C. sativus.

[Gerry Webster]

Here some pics of a few Crocus - a relative new addiction thanks to this forum and especially Hubi.
A blue form of Crocus cambessedesii, C.laevigatus, two forms of C. mathewii (second from a very genorous forumist!), C. sativus and C.speciosus. As C. sativus is known as triploid clone I am surprised about the variation in colour, C. speciosus is nothing special for most growers in the north but here it survives hot and dry conditions during summer without any problem.

Welcome to the club Hans. If your new crocus do half as well as your Sternbergias then they are going to be spectacular.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

A great series of Croci Hans !  They seem to enjoy your garden just as much as the fabulous Iris' do !!  And remember.... once a nut... always a nut !! 

Melvyn, what  superb shots of the C. boryi in the wild !!  Fabulous !!

[Thomas Huber]

Melvyn, what a great sight - seems like you've been there for the right time.

YT - did you try to protect your corms with fence wire? I have the same problems here with cats, but I've noticed, that they stop digging, when the soil is compacted by rain after a few weeks. Until this time you could lie a piece of fence wire on the surface. And like Armin I use plant baskets for my corms. In most cases this helps, but I've had it two or three times, that a fresh dug basket has been digged up completely with the corms - perhaps due to the human smell?

Armin thanks for the tipp with the rape oil !

[mark smyth]

Mark, does Lecithine in high dose help?

so far yes

[Armin]

Mark,
good for you! I asked because there are lots of debades about effectiveness/ineffectiveness of Lecithine as dietary supplement...

[Kees Jan]

Here is another Crocus from W Turkey: C. nerimaniae, which has a somewhat wider distribution than I thought.

http://keesjan.smugmug.com/Botanical-trips/Asia/Western-Turkey-Autumn-2010/

[Maggi Young]

These crocus in the wild are wonderful...... I am so grateful to be able to see them.

[Arda Takan]

Kees Jan,

Your website is great!