Crocus February 2012

[ian mcenery]

Luc i will do that.

First time flowering for this

Crocus gothenburgensis

I am quite pleased with it particularly the striping on the petals

Tony a lovely one. Definitely the best of both parents

[bulborum]

Tony

Can't wait to see an open flower

Roland

[Tony Willis]

Tony

Can't wait to see an open flower

Roland

Thanks all I am pleased with it. Roland that is the best I can do,it flowered whilst I have been away and I have just caught it at its end. Still a good number of bulbs to come and so it will be interesting to see how good they are.

[bulborum]

SHI..

Well next year a new change
or maybe a new flower

Bedtime here

Roland

[Martin Baxendale]

Tony

Can't wait to see an open flower

Roland

Thanks all I am pleased with it. Roland that is the best I can do,it flowered whilst I have been away and I have just caught it at its end. Still a good number of bulbs to come and so it will be interesting to see how good they are.

Are they your own seedlings? I'd be interested to know if they display hybrid vigour and are easier to grow than the parents. I was offered pelistericus once but turned it down because I was worried that it wouldn't like my hot, dry garden even in a constantly moist pot. But the very striking potential colour combinations from gotheburgensis suggested by your flower are making me think again about trying the parents here and doing some crosses, especially if the hybrid offspring are likely to be easier going than  the parents.

[Janis Ruksans]

Very good, Tony.
Janis

[Tony Willis]

Martin

yes they are my own seedlings and I have three years sowing with pelistericus both the seed and the pollen parent,therefore six pots each with a dozen or so bulbs. I would be interested to know if the name 'gothenburgensis' applies to both crosses. I have not yet produced the F2 hybrid but I am hopeful of seed this year.They are really spectacular.

As to vigour this is an impossible question as I seem to have ideal growing conditions for these particular bulbs and have been growing them for years having produced numerous generations of pelistericus. I have mentioned before our rainfall and I estimate we have not had more than fifty dry days in the last two years. Naturally it is raining as I type this and has been for the last three days. Humidity is high all year round. I cannot grow things such as juno  irises which get botrytis and die within days of flowering. Having just returned from the deserts of the south I would say they are just not worth the effort with you.

[Martin Baxendale]

Tony, thanks for the advice. That was pretty much my original thinking - that it'd be a shame to kill such decidedly moisture-loving crocus as pelistericus and scardicus trying to grow them here, even in constantly moist pots and despite their beauty and potential for such sumptuous hybrids. But your seedling is so gorgeous that I was having second thoughts. The hybrid name should apply whichever way around the cross is made as genetically the result is the same.

[Martin Baxendale]

Hopefully the hybrids will have some hybrid vigour and prove a little less difficult to grow, and so become more widely available and more suitable for gardens like mine (luckily I'm not nearly as dry here in the west as gardens in the drought-stricken east of England, getting a fair bit of rain - though nothing to match your part of the country - but I am on a south-facing hillside which can get pretty hot in summer, when we get one!)

[Maggi Young]

Re : Crocus x gotoburgensis  also spelled as   gothenburgensis , gothenbergensis .......

Tony
Can't wait to see an open flower
Roland

Thanks all I am pleased with it. Roland that is the best I can do,it flowered whilst I have been away and I have just caught it at its end. Still a good number of bulbs to come and so it will be interesting to see how good they are.

Are they your own seedlings? I'd be interested to know if they display hybrid vigour and are easier to grow than the parents. I was offered pelistericus once but turned it down because I was worried that it wouldn't like my hot, dry garden even in a constantly moist pot. But the very striking potential colour combinations from gotheburgensis suggested by your flower are making me think again about trying the parents here and doing some crosses, especially if the hybrid offspring are likely to be easier going than  the parents.

I must admit that when I first saw the  hybrid of these two stunning species, C. pelistericus and C. scardicus, I was somewhat doubtful about the resulting  flowers.  Now I have got used to them, I find myself mellowing in my opinion. This turnaround has been helped greatly by seeing pictures of the F2 and F3 hybrids raised inGothenberg BG.... these are turning out to be cracking  flowers, really eye-catching.

A prospect, of course, that gives the creeps to those who prefer that species be kept pure !

[ronm]

At the danger of invoking ire in others, I'm with you Maggi 

[Maggi Young]

Can't remember if Tony posted these pictures here or not... but here is a link to his pix in the NARGS Forum of the parents and their baby..http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=952.0

And in this IRG there is a little about the cross, too....
http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2011Apr281304030775IRG16_April2011.pdf

[Maggi Young]

At the danger of invoking ire in others, I'm with you Maggi 

We both  run the risk of being shot, Ron     Personally, I don't know why we can't try to do both... preserve species through vegetative propagation and make the occasional hybrid for some added vigour here and there 

[ronm]

But couldn't species vigour be maintained by crossing different clones of the same species? ( he says dangerously, knowing he's swerving close to the species argument again,  ). I would prefer to see more effort in this direction across the growing community, rather than creating artificial plants,  . In this way the genetic variability within a species (!) could be better examined. Obviously nothing beats a careful field study, but when was the last one produced? ( and I mean a careful study, as opposed to a collecting trip ). This would in no way be commercial I know.
There is no one who believes in commerce more than I do, by the way.
Am I too black and white? Would my garden be a monotony? I'd probably have a garden full of weak, spindly scrambling roses wouldn't I?
Suppose there must be room for both Maggi, at the end of the day,
 

[Michael J Campbell]

We both  run the risk of being shot, Ron     Personally, I don't know why we can't try to do both... preserve species through vegetative propagation and make the occasional hybrid for some added vigour here and there   

Maggi,I have been pondering that for years. I am a backyard pollen- dauber and frequently get the turned up nose treatment for some of the things I produce.