Crocus September 2007

[Martin Baxendale]

For the same reason we don't use the 'nasty' blue slug pellets because of what might eat the dead slugs.

I buy 'organic' slug pellets from the garden centres and DIY places down here, active ingredient Ferric Phosphate, brand name 'Growing Success'. Says its harmless to pets and kids, and the slugs stop feeding and crawl away to die out of sight - so not exactly sure what harm they might do to birds and toads etc. Anyone have any idea if slugs would be toxic to birds etc after ingesting ferric phosphate?

[annew]

I suspect that stuff is harmless to slugs and snails as well, judging from the effect it seems to have.

[David Shaw]

Martin, that is the stuff we use, I could not remember the name.
It is recommended by Henry Doubleday Research Association as being harmless to birds and toads etc. and is sold by their commercial arm, Chase Organics (as well as many garden centres).
It seems to dry up the body fluids of the snails and slugs as I find lots of shrivelled corpses around the seedling pots that I have used it on.

[Boyed]

Thomas,

No, it is not the one you saw last year. It flowers for me just the first year. I collected it last october from the south of the country.

The one you saw is not flowering yet. It is  my own selection from a wild material collected from the village Pambak (next to our town). It has larger flowers and the outer petals are milky white from outsde. I propagated it from a single corm and called it 'Cloudy Sky'. The common crocus speciosus from Pambak is blue, but is taller up to 25-26 cm and has larger flowers. Here are some pics.

[Paul T]

Dirk,

Love the styles on the Cr.medius, native form.  The contrast with the fluffy deep orange to the petal colour is striking.  Great pics.

Zhirair,

The 'Cloudy Sky' look fantastic.  Beautiful colour combination.  Well done!!

[Thomas Huber]

Zhirair, "Cloudy Sky" looks wonderful  put me on the list for the first spare!

Some photos from our sunny last weekend:

- Crocus biflorus ssp melantherus from Mt. Kyllini in Greece with  uncommon outer markings
-    "
- a wonderful small (only 10cm) and bicolored C. niveus (thanks David and Carol!)
- another abnormal small plant is this C. nudiflorus from Andorra, 10cm - all the other plants I have are 20cm and more
- C. robertianus from the Pindus mountains in Greece
- C. thomasii from Croatia (thanks Andrew!)
- C. speciosus ssp xantholaimos - the only speciosus with yellow throat (thanks Dirk!)

[Thomas Huber]

And some impressions from the rockgarden:

[Michael]

  Wonderfull Thomas! I love the orange anthers! BTW you could make your own Saffron business 

[Armin]

Hi et all,

thanks for all the "anti-mice" advices. Mice traps could be useful but I'm afraid our curious cats will be harmed by touching the bait or as Martin wrote "once there's a dead meece in one, inevitably a cat or fox will grab the meece and whisk it away, with the trap still attached."

Another thing is, due to business reasons, I see my garden only during weekends. Mice traps need to be controllled daily. For sure, my wife would refuse to do the mice trap job.

I'll verify on weekly base if there are new holes and will re-think if I should start some counter measures.

Final sentence: I was absend a couple of days and it is a great pleasure to me to see all the fantastic crocus pictures and forum contributions.

[mark smyth]

Thomas your Crocus could be in the mountains

[Guff]

Thomas very nice.

Also, have you saved pollen from biflorus ssp melantherus, and then stuck some on spring flowering C. chrysanthus/biflorus. Curious if any of the seedlings would also flower in the fall?

Bulbmeiser has biflorus ssp melantherus, but it says spring flowering, and is rather expensive. I think it said $11.50 per corm.

[annew]

Your rock garden looks beautiful, Thomas.

[Lesley Cox]

Not only the crocuses are beautiful Thomas, but the rock work is very good indeed. It looks just right for the plants you have there. It also looks like the same part of the rockgarden as in my October calendar page, right after the September rainbow over Neustadt.

[Paul T]

Thomas,

Your rock garden is inspiring!!  Love the pics.  I particularly like the group shot where the style etc are silhouetted (that spelling doesn't look right.  ) onto the petals in the lft couple of flowers.  Lovely detail.  I'm sure my Crocus would FAR prefer to be living in your rock garden than in my conditions here!!    As soon as funds allow I am intending to build a small(6 foot by 6 foot) raised bed for my Crocus, Iris retics etc.... and your pics just inspire me more and more.

Thanks!!

[I.S.]

  Thomas!
You make me envy by your garden and pictures. The day will come which I wait!! I am still so far. Yesterday I had a look around there was nothing yet.