Crocus October 2007

[Andrew]

Crocus pallasii subsp. dispathaceus





Crocus thomasii

[mark smyth]

tomasii is a lovely looking Crocus.

So how white is white?

Here is pulchellus 'Zephyr' (L), pulchellus 'Alba' (M) and goulimyi 'Alba'

All my pulchellus 'Alba' have stunted styles

[David Shaw]

Another sunny day in Scotland and opportunity to admire some more crocus.
Crocus biflorus melantherus showing markings beneath the petals
Crocus biflorus melantherus with a delicious yellow throat and 'not very' black anthers. Will the black develop with age? (I see now, it is covered in pollen. Come on little bee)
Crocus serotinus salzmanii
Crocus serotinus salzmanii with pollinator (it is so a bee). Note all the pollen splattered on the petals.

[Maggi Young]

Nice bee there, David!
 

The black anthers of Crocus biflorus melantherus are actually black at first, turning golden as they dehisce. This is the case in some other plants with black anthers, though, of course, I cannot for the life of me think of any right this minute 

[mark smyth]

Some Geraniums and Hemerocallis

[hadacekf]

I think Crocus pulchelus has an inclination for such unusual blooms but it is not stable.

[Lesley Cox]

These are lovely Franz, very "acceptable" doubles, compared with many.

[Maggi Young]

I agree, Lesley and so well pictured, also.

[mark smyth]

I'm with the other two. When does Franz ever show a dud photo!?

Can I mention a pet hate here or do I go for a moan?

[Maggi Young]

No, Mark, go for a moan !

[Martin Baxendale]

Franz, I think you're right - Crocus pulchellus is inclined to throw double flowers which later return to singles. I've had two instances of just that in my garden in different years. Of course I carefully selected them both out only to find the next year they were singles again! 

[hadacekf]

Mark, I hope not at any time!

[Boyed]

I take a month vacation to plant my tulips and am rarely in the internet lately. So I see I miss lots of interersting dicussions.
I have some wonderful photos I 'd like to share.
One of my favourite corocuses -
crocus niveus bicolour form, which has lots of decorative features- special beauty and nice colour combination, good sizes (including the corm size), strong tube and firm constitution of petals, being floriferous (one corm produces more than 5 blooms), long lasting qualities, high increasing rate, etc
Once (3 years ago) I had only 3 flowering-sized corms, but now I have more than 30. I think my growing method proves to be effective for crocuses. I harvest them annualy, each year plant in a fresh rich leafy soil, use very large and deep pots, during winter keep under the temperature from +3 to +10 C, etc. And I should mention that I don't use any fertilizers at all.

[Boyed]

Tony,
thanks for your useful tips and pictures relating viruses. This topic is very interesting for me and I have been studying viruses during all my gardening experience making lots of different tests and experiments to understand their nature. Now I can easily identify any virus-infected samples, even the ones that cought virus ricently and in which the simptoms are not so easily observed. I also infect some crocus cultivars with virus on a purpose to see how each varietiy or species behaves itself when infected. My experiments started with tulips and continued with crocuses.
I would like to add also some information relating virus mosaic. The samples infected with virus mosaic during some period of time (after flowering, during vegetation) can have some brown stripes on their leaves as if the leaves were slightly burnt. You are deffinately right, mosaic infected plants rarely can also have slightly destorted flowers, which I mentioned during my growing experience.

Your comparison picture of crocus speciousus and colchicum 'Rosy Dawn' is very impressive. My crocus speciosus 'Pambak' also grows very tall up to 26 cm, but has flowers slightly smaller than those of 'Oxonian'. But in my opinion, it has very serious bonus camparing to some Dutch cultivars - very strong tubes.

[Boyed]

Tony,
I always enjoy your crocus pictures very much. You show many interesting species, cultivars and variations. Your crocus niveus forms look quite nice.
Your crocus niveus white form is blooming now and it resembles the ones shown in your pics. Some of my samles also have slight lilac flush. They have normal sizes, equalling to crocus goulimyi by height and flowers size. In general I liked them, but they have one serious shortcoming - flowers are not long lasting, they last only for 2-3 days. Anyway, thanks a lot for that beauty. Here are the pics.

The seedlings are about to bloom. I will show the pics as soon as possible.

P.C. I would very appriciate if you place a pic of your crocus niveus white largest form, especially a comaprison picture if avalable. I am especially interested how large the flowers are.