Crocus November 2007

[Thomas Huber]

Good morning November!

Despite the early started flowering season I still have many crocus in my garden!

- cancellatus ssp lycius
- cancellatus ssp pamphyllicus - the only cancellatus with white anthers (2 photos)
- cancellatus ssp mazziaricus
- biflorus ssp melantherus - the black-anthered autumn biflorus (thanks Dirk)
- ? this blue beauty was found in a hadriaticus mix, but the long red style points for cartwrightianus. Any other ideas?
- longiflorus collected on Sicily, a small, dark form which is my favourite of all longiflorus (2 photos)

[Thomas Huber]

.... and some more:

- 2 forms of laevigatus
- ochroleucus, the trade form
- hadriaticus M 5048 with its wonderful stripes
- one of my favourite autumn crocus, robertianus

[mark smyth]

thats a good show. We have another dull autumn day and heavy rain. I'm still worried about the absence of Crocus flowers. There has been no sign of nice in the pots. I'll knock a few out this weekend.

Various korolokowii and chrysanthus now have colour showing at the tip of their buds

[Thomas Huber]

That is very, very early, Mark. My chrysanthus only have the first leaves! No sign of korolkowii.

[tonyg]

Fabulous Thomas - Some super plants and beautifully photographed.
Are most of these new arrivals or have they been outside for one or more winters already?  They certainly look happy in your garden .... here the Atlantic influence on the weather would 'challenge' some of them.  This year with a cool wet summer the display from my autumn crocus planted outside has been very poor - and the cool, wet autumn has not helped them to look good either.

Mark - are we talking flower buds or just the shoots??

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Great show Thomas !
That C. robertianus is a cracker (as are all the others) 

[Thomas Huber]

Tony, lycius and the complete second batch arrived 2006, the rest is new in my garden!
We had only one day (yesterday) with sunshine here, today its foggy and dark again 

[Lesley Cox]

Lovely pictures Thomas. I specially like the cream laevigatus.

[David Nicholson]

Absolutely beautiful Thomas.

[mark smyth]

Tony the colour is showing at ground level in the noses

[Otto Fauser]

Thomas, you do take some excellent photos-I do agree with you ,the single flower of Cr.hadriaticus is Cr. cartwrightianus ,in hadriaticus the style is divided at a point well above the throat into 3 slender orange-red branches-your dark form of longiflorus from Sicily is unusual & handsome, i grow a form from Malta which is not quite as dark.I also have a cream form of laevigatus from Crete, very small flowers.Your photo of robertianis ,it is hard to make out if it is the normal lilac or the albino form ?
   Ciao Otto.

[Thomas Huber]

Thanks Otto for the confirmation of my ID, allthough I think my cartwrightianus/hadriaticus could be of hybrid origin - note the defective whitish anthers!

Robertianus is an intermediate between blue and white - indeed not obviously from the photo, but in the garden you can notice a soft hint of blue in the colour. The albino and the blue form have flowered somewhat earlier.

The dark longiflorus is the only flower I have this year, so its unlikely to set seed, but possibly next year 

[udo]

Thomas,your unknown Crocus is possibly a seedling from
Crocus cartwrightianus 'Albus' hort. Seed from this hybrid
bring nice forms between hadriaticus and cartwrightianus.

Crocus ex. cartwrightianus 'Albus' hort.

[Paul T]

Howdy All,

Great pics everyone.  Particularly like Thomas' hadriaticus mix and the dark longiflorus.... and any laevigatus is a good laevigatus!!    Thanks for taking the time to post your pics everyone.

[David Nicholson]

The BD always says Crocus sativus is difficult to grow but I have had a go and I agree with him, but yet Franz has shown pictures of a lovely clump. I planted mine, which were garden centre bought, in my new bulb bed in a nice rich gritty soil. I planted them a good 15cm deep in a basket and on the same day I planted 3 of the corms in a pot just to hedge my bets.

The result has been, so far, two flowers in the soil and plenty of leaf (the picture shows one of the flowers as whilst I was preparing to take a photograph my neighbours three year old, who comes to 'help' me, picked one of them for his Mum!) but the potted corms are a long way behind.

Should I disturb the soil based corms next August/September or give them another year in situ?