Crocus March 2011

[Thomas Huber]

04 and 42: Mixed beds in my rockgarden with Crocus versicolor, flavus, x leonidii, biflorus 'Fairy' and Galanthus
16: I have never thought, that white flowers can look so good, biflorus 'Miss Vain' and Galanthus nivalis
12 and 46: angustifolius 'Bronce' - the photo doesn't show the true color, they look deep dark orange - just wonderful.
33: chrysanthus 'Advance' another orange Crocus with purple outer petals
35: one of my favourites, chrysanthus 'Eyecatcher'. Lost from trade for many years, since a virus caught the Dutch stock
74: chrysanthus from the HK collection with dark anthers and dark outer petals.
18: another sight of biflorus 'Miss Vain'
04: one more 'lost' chrysanthus cultivar 'Warley', could be bought in each garden-center years ago, but no-one has it today 

[Brian Ellis]

Simply stunning Thomas

[Gerdk]

Great sights Thomas!
Thanks god you are back from winter dormancy! 

Gerd

[Luc Gilgemyn]

It's been a while since you showed us your Crocus extravaganza Thomas, but it was worth the wait !! 
Still as amazing as ever !! 

[David Nicholson]

Lovely stuff Thomas.

[christian pfalz]

hello thomas,
wow........looks very good....colour explosion 
cheers
chris

[Thomas Huber]

Thanks everybody, here some more:

80- Crocus fleischeri
10- korolkowii 'January Gold' - If you know the wonderful selections of Crocus korolkowii, that Janis has registrated, you really wonder what on earth has forced people to registrate such an ugly mutant!! Even the standard trade form is 1000 times better!
72- My collection of Crocus malyi has increased very well. It's just a white flower, but I love is shape very much.
05- angustifolius x reticulatus - a Schnabel-cross
02- Crocus tauricus from Crimea
11- An interesting Galanthus elwesii with one wing
08- First flowering of this Galanthus woronowii in my garden. I don't think the yellow will be permanent - but I will keep an eye on it

[Thomas Huber]

This year I have found a lot of new hybrids on my lawn.
Many have been dug up for better growing in beds.
Here a selecion of the best forms:

[Thomas Huber]

Last for today, my absolutely favourite species:
Crocus versicolor from Southern France. 

I love the increadible variability of this plant  , seems like it has an endless number
of different variants and so many would be worth separating to increase for trade.

In the past Crocus versicolor was sold in many, many variants in trade.
1831 J. Sabine counted 18 cultivars, but unfortunately only one has survived
until today: versicolor 'Picturatus'

[Susan Band]

Your lawn looks amazing Thomas. I am finding seedlings from your crocus and I think I will try and copy you. It will take some time to get it like yours maybe I will enjoy them when I am retired
Susan

ps I liked the 3rd hybrid very much

[Brian Ellis]

Susan is right, that third hybrid is lovely.  I shall have to put some C.versicolor in the gravel and wait for my own crocus explosion

[Thomas Huber]

Thanks Susan and Brian - no problem if you want to copy my idea,
there isn't any copyright saved by me 
Please keep me in touch about your progress!

Re chrysanthus hybrids:
Please note, that the 2nd and 3rd photo are the same plant
also the 4th and 5th photo are the same plant.

So do you mean the 3rd photo or the 3rd plant??
I find them both lovely and unique.
Thank god I found them before Chris saw them - he was also
digging up some lovely hybrids from MY (!) lawn to plant them
into his own bed 

[Brian Ellis]

I liked the second/third photo 48 & 49

[Janis Ruksans]

More and more busy every day as more and more flowers start to bloom. For last days even hadn't time to sort out pictures and to prepare them for forum. So now I want to show you
very light blue form of Crocus abantensis
quite usual and not very special Crocus angustifolius from Crim. My best selections felt as victims in endless battle with rodents
Crocus biflorus subsp. biflorus from Italy and its leaves crossection showing no ribs in underneath grooves
and Crocus biflorus weldenii from Croatia and its leaves section with well noticeable ribs
Crocus biflorus ionopharynx - very spectacular although not very typical form
This Crocus x paulinae I showed a year before as "ancyrensis brownish" - now I changed opinion and I think that it is really paulinae and its locality was incorrectly reported by seller. The hybrid origin confirms why during 3 seasons I got no one seed.
On last two pictures you can see spring Crocus collection bed today and beds in commercial part of nursery, where spring comes, too.
Janis

[Tony Willis]

Thomas and Janis wonderful pictures of the crocus,mine are now well finished.