Early spring in the Southern Hemisphere

[Lesley Cox]

It's still July in the Southern Hemisphere (as everywhere) but the back of winter appears to be broken here at least, with a couple of days with mild, north westerly winds. Several new seeds have germinated and there are many crocuses starting, along with more Narcissus, Galanthus, the first Cyclamen coum and Adonis amurensis, Iris reticulata forms, especially `Natascha' and some seedlings from Alan McMurtrie's seed and I. `Sheila Ann Germaney' opened just today. I didn't want to put these crocuses in a winter thread, nor in the Crocus April thread, so here's a new one.

First C. biflorus ssp melantherus



Then two shots of what I have as C. biflorus ssp. pulchricolor. Thomas thinks it's a form of biflorus ssp alexandri because it has no yellow throat. I haven't looked at the corm tunic yet but the leaves are well advanced at flowering which they shouldn't be, according to Mathew.





Crocus cvijicii has truly wonderful colouring. The shot is a shocker and I apologise but it shows the glowing orangey yellow well. I went to get another pic just 5 mins later but in that short time a little cold wind had come up and the flowers are closed. The flash went off, so dark had it become. Another not good pic.





And what this post is all about, 2 further seedlings from the cvijicii x veluchensis batch. Both are lovely, the second one almost bronzy/brown in bud. In both cases the colour is stronger than the pics show. I'm very pleased with these and think I'll try to repeat the cross.









I really do apologise for the out-of-focus shots but it's raining now and I'm not going out again.

[fermi de Sousa]

Lesley, do make up your mind!
These "hoops" really follow on from the ones I posted recently, but I suppose they can be considered "spring flowers"!
Firstly a GBF-raised hybrid "Ianmon";
then some Narc. romieuxii seedlings ex Julia Jane but not as flat as her; very floriferous, though. 2 clumps;
then one I got as N.bulbocodium var. graellsii, but I think that's supposed to be a late flowerer; 2 views.
Lastly another clump of "GB Ta-Julia" in another part of the garden.
cheers
fermi

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Great shots Lesley and Fermi - brings back the Spring feeling in a chilly and wet summer !
I particularly love that Crocus biflorus ssp pulchricolor - smashing colours.
But do you even realize what you are doing Lesley     You might be waking up the Croconuts from their summer snooze ?   God knows what will happen now ?

[Magnar]

Yes I agree,, nice to see the spring flowers again now that we are going towards end of summer  here.

[Lesley Cox]

I'm a female Fermi, I'm allowed to change my mind. And don't you feel better already knowing it's (almost) spring? I like the `Julia Jane' seedlings. Are these yours? I have a lot (100s) coming toward flowering size, another year perhaps, so I hope they flower so well. They'll be great for bulb lawn planting. 

Luc, that's just I'm hoping to do, re-activate the croconuts. They've been too quiet of late.

Welcome to the Southern Hemisphere Magnar.

[fermi de Sousa]

The only problem with an early spring is the thought of yet another summer to follow with yet another drought! But it has been a wetter winter this year so maybe not quite as dry a summer...maybe.
But, Lesley, should the Galanthus pics be posted here or to the previous thread? Hopefully there'll be a lot more Narcissus to show as well.
cheers
fermi

[Lesley Cox]

But if spring's early at this end, it doesn't mean it'll be early at the other end, so perhaps we'll have a long, drawn out spring which would be nice.

If I have any Galanthus worth a pic and any further Narcissus, I'll put them here I think, also Cyclamen trochopteranthum which I just noticed a few minutes ago but I'll have to weed round it first, poor thing.

[fermi de Sousa]

I'm so surprised no one picked up on the mistake I made in my posting last Friday - my only excuse can be that it was FRIDAY!
The mistake was I posted a pic of Narc. "Tiffany" and named it "Ianmon"! I know telling "hoops" apart can be like discerning between snowdrops but you can tell in the next set of pics the difference between these two, with "Tiffany" having a wider flaring cup.
Lastly, a pic of some Galanthus elwesii with an early "spring star-flower" Ipheion uniflorum "Froyle Mill"; "Alberto Castillo" is still only in bud.
cheers
fermi

[Maggi Young]

Fermi, I have never seen N. 'Ianmon' so my only thought was that it was a daft name!

[fermi de Sousa]

Glenbrook have a lot of strange and fun names! The detective series include Spoirot (herculeS POIROT), Smarple (misS MARPLE), Kholmes (sherlocK HOLMES) and I presume "Ianmon" is in this series! A private correspondent has told me today that another GBF hybrid "Ben Bler" is from BENson and staBLER, TV detectives in SVU!
cheers
fermi

[Otto Fauser]

Lesley, I agree with Thomas H.[he is back from his holidays in Austria] that your Crocus biflorus ssp. pulchricolor is actually biflorus ssp. alexandri.Your Cr. cvijicii x veluchensis is gorgeous, I only have a patch of cvijicii in flower now, no veluchensis, so if you repeat that cross again this season I would dearly love to get a few seeds. Amongst  many other Crocus in flower now is the newish paschei & the old historic korolkowii 'Dytiscus' & tommasinianus 'Pictus' selected by old E.A.Bowles a long time ago, also about 70 different Galanthus species &named cultivars, particularly lovely last week blooming through 8cmof snow! Also the correct name [at the moment] for Cyclamen trochopteranthum is alpinum.
        it is almost midnight, so good night, otto.

[annew]

Re Ianmon - I thought it would be emanating from your household, Maggi!

[Maggi Young]

Narcissus 'Ianmon'... well it does smack rather of  "Hoots, mon, Jings, Crivvens, Help ma Boab!" and such- like cod scottish sayings!

[Lesley Cox]

Otto, if I can do seed sometime, you shall have it but at present I have about 30 seedlings which have flowered and only three are as distinct as these were. Most are pale yellow and some with the merest hint of pale lilac which fades almost immediately. These are the first flowering of this batch and each corm is in a separate pot so I can keep them apart from the others. As they increase I want to send some to Thomas and to John Lonsdale in the States and to you of course

I'll change the name on the C. b. pulchricolor. It's not that I didn't believe Thomas but it is so different from my other ssp alexandri that I was reluctant to lump them together. My C. cvijicii is in full flower but veluchensis isn't even showing yet, although there's an extra cvijicii beside the veluchensis and that's not up either so I still may be able to hand pollinate in a week or so.

After the 4+ inches of rain on Monday and following a fortnight of hard frosts, yesterday I had 15 more pots of frit seed germinated and about 20 other pots as well. And great news is that while not even showing at all on Sunday, by Tuesday (yesterday) there was a fat stem growth on Fritillaria alburyana , 3 cms high and with a bud already formed and poking up at the top of the leaves. That's QUICK!

[fermi de Sousa]

Here's the first flower on a Colchicum burtii grown from seed supplied by Marcus Harvey - sown 11-May-2003. Does anyone else grow this?
Next is the wonderfuly named "Mondieu" another GBF Narc. romieuxii selection. The flower is about 5cm (2") across!
cheers
fermi