[pbs] Sun ! Crocusses !
Jane McGary
janemcgary at earthlink.net
Sat Dec 15 16:31:34 EST 2007
Antoine Hoog wrote
>The crocuses Jim mentions have now finished here. Still blooming is Crocus
>niveus, several clones from the Mani Peninsula of the Peloponnese. This
>continues to bloom after other clones of Crocus niveus, from near Kalamata
>and from Mali peninsula have finished. It is our latest blooming one in the
>open garden until the spring crocuses start.
I enjoyed seeing C. niveus in the Mani Peninsula a year ago, especially
since this region's population includes many blue forms of this more
typically white species. The blue form is available in cultivation and
seems to come fairly true from seed; I raised some from seed given me by a
correspondent in the UK. Crocus niveus doesn't do well in the open garden
for me but flourishes in the bulb frame, making very large corms. Some
flowers are still in good condition now in mid-December. The only other
species flowering are C. laevigatus and C. ochroleucus. The former barely
survives in the open here, but the latter is a very sturdy, persistent
plant. I think C. ochroleucus hangs on the the garden because it pulls down
very deep, where perhaps the voles don't encounter it, even though it's
quite a small crocus.
Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon, USA
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