Crocus 2011

I'm getting a little jealous! I have some fall blooming  crocuses but they are either eaten by slugs or broken by rain and hail :(
I grow almost all my plants in the garden as I can't have too many pots!

All really wonderful, Michael.  Crocus pulchellus, especially, is to-die-for. 

How did you get it to glow in the center ;D?  The anthers on this is particularly pleasing, too!

Lori wrote:

Does Crocus banaticus always have such a difference in size between the sets of petals (3 big, 3 small?), or was that flower not completely open yet?

Another name for this crocus was "iridiflorus" which might 'give you a clue' - as someone I know always says! ;D
cheers
fermi

What interesting petal backs on the Crocus  biflorus melantherus.
Makes me what to see what the tops look like!  (hint)  :o

And the purple perianth tubes are showy to boot!  The flower sure is taking its sweet time.  Do the three inner petals ever open "completely"?  I see that they are a bit shorter than the sepals, too.

Very nice fall crocuses both of you have! The few I have are all gone - the last ones damaged by a hailstorm. I grow them all in the ground outside though, can't cope with more pots!

Some beautiful fall crocus pics being posted here, what's not to love about these late blooming treasures.  I have 8 species in bloom in the garden right now, although with the amount of rain we've had this autumn the display has been somewhat spoiled and they aren't very photo-worthy at the moment.  I was working from home today and ran out and snapped a photo of Crocus sativus, the saffron crocus... a bit weather-beaten but not bad. The blooms are very large, richly colored and perfumed.

I especially like all the bicolor specimens, and the saffron crocus. 

A question for you, Mark: it is obviously doing very well.  In your cold climate, does the foliage just survive the winter as is, and continue through the spring?

deesen wrote:

........ and will it come back next year ;D

...of course it'll be back next year, it is soundly hardy in New England, in its 9th year.

RickR wrote:

I especially like all the bicolor specimens, and the saffron crocus. 

A question for you, Mark: it is obviously doing very well.  In your cold climate, does the foliage just survive the winter as is, and continue through the spring?

Yes Rick, the foliage is totally winter evergreen and continues into spring with dense grass-like tufts of leaves.  It eventually goes dormant about the same time the spring crocus have finished flowering and going dormant.  Some photos of winter foliage.

In winter, the snow always melts first around the mulched tree and shrub rings where bulbs are planted. The foliage is that of Crocus sativus.

The same "shrub ring" in mid December when we were hit with the infamous ice storm of 2008, Hibiscus syriacus heavy under the weight of ice, eventually the root ball lifted out of the ground :o.  Not to worry, in spring I was able to upright the shrub and stabilize it with rocks, and the shrub never blinked an eye.  Isn't it amazing what ice can do to the foliage of Crocus sativus, doing a pretty good impression of a dagger-leafed Aciphylla ;)

And here in late March, the foliage still looks fine, the spring crocus are budded and ready to pop.

That's very encouraging, Mark.  And I am impressed.  They (and the color) are very captivating.  I'll bet you sited them there specifically, so they would be clear of snow early, and have a long cold growing season.  Some of the best Snow trilliums (Trillium nivale) I've seen in the wild here grow on limestone jut outs on north east facing hills.  Snow melts there first, too.

In the last pic, are you showing/looking for seed pods?

RickR wrote:

That's very encouraging, Mark.  And I am impressed.  I'll bet you sited them there specifically, so they would be clear of snow early, and have a long cold growing season.  Some of the best Snow trilliums (Trillium nivale) I've seen in the wild here grow on limestone jut outs on north east facing hills.  Snow melts there first, too.

In the last pic, are you showing/looking for seed pods?

I never get seed on any of the autumn blooming Crocus, and I was looking for seed, and I kept looking for seed into the spring months, but in all these years, never found a single pod on C. sativus.  At long last, this spring I did find some pods on C. asumaniae, a heavily perfumed autumn species that is in bloom now, a species that can be used for saffron.

deesen wrote:

Crocus sativus is a sterile triploid hybrid.

That explains why it is non-existent in the wild, according to the Crocus pages. 

So then, surely it must be virus infected, having been only asexually propagated these many, many centuries. Do any crocus collectors care about this?

deesen wrote:

McDonough wrote:

................ never found a single pod on C. sativus...................

Crocus sativus is a sterile triploid hybrid.

David, I thought you might enjoy this... maybe these seeds are truly magic ;D
http://www.magicgardenseeds.com/CRO01

Within a few inches of my C. sativus clump, I have a couple bulbs of C. thomasii flowering at the same time.  This article is for purchase, thus I haven't acquired it, but the title speaks for itself, all is not black and white.  Maybe I should be looking for the chance of seed after all ;)
Fertilization of Crocus sativus L. ovules and development of seeds after stigmatic pollination with C. thomasii Ten. pollen
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/11263508909430244

deesen wrote:

A few bits and pieces about Crocus sativus gleaned from Janis Ruksans excellent monograph "Crocuses: A Complete Guide to the Genus" Timber Press 2010.

"......... to get a good flowering it must be grown in areas with a really hot and long dry summer......." (Not Devon, UK then!!)

".........Most likely it is a selected form of Crocus cartwrightianus although in the wild there are no plants with such huge flowers and such long stigmas.........."

Not a problem here, C. sativus always flowers prolifically.

Research paper excerpts that I've been looking at put both C. cartwrightianus and C. thomasii as the two species most likely as ancesters of C. sativus.

Okay, then, here's one of favorite weeds. Taken a couple of hours ago.

Bob

Thanks. Self sown, too. I take no credit at all, except for not accidentally digging it up.....
There are hundreds of C. speciosus here, and for some reason, the birds don't shred them to pieces like they do the spring-flowering ones.
I also like the fact that, even though they get knocked flat by snow over and over again, more keep coming, until around Christmas, when they finally give up.

Bob

I have never experienced birds damaging Crocus but like Wim I suspect rodents do (and squirrels). On the other hand the autumn weather usually is not to the liking of autumn crocuses. However, this autumn is an exception and in hope of better autumn weather in the years to come have I planted several species! My hope is that at least some will proliferate and make displays like Nold's.

One of the few of autumn-flowering species that grows well here is C. banaticus. Unfortunately slugs seem to like it >:(

I think it's the robin (Turdus migratorius) that shredded crocuses here, but only in "spring". (No crocuses in bloom here as late as the vernal equinox.)
The French Scare Cats posted in the various parts of the garden where crocuses abound seem to have frightened them off; haven't seen this happen since the cats were put in.
I saw a slug in the garden here this year.

Bob

Just one slug? I killed several today . . . .

Some autumn crocus growing in our alpine house at work.  Crocus banaticus, C. goulimyi, C. cancellatus and C. tournefortii

Quote:

Just one slug? 

Just one slug. There was quite a bit of rain (for us) in May and June, and I saw a slug. Some snails, too, that apparently had come in from nursery plants. I stepped on two large ones by mistake; disgusting sensation.
It never rains here in the winter. (Never in the same sense that I never worry about elephants trampling the garden.)
I'm fairly jealous of Todd's crocus; I should try to get these next autumn. Despite the fact that it snows for nine months of the year here, there are occasionally periods when it isn't snowing, and I've had crocus in bloom on January 1st, which to me is more exciting than almost anything that summer has to offer.

Bob

...and I take the banaticus!
Do we arrange a sluggy competition? Who collects the less slugs and snails in 10 minutes?

I get PRECIPITATION from January to December...for 4 months at least it's in the form of snow...can't see the slugs then!  But they will be waiting for the first of the SPRING crocus for sure!