In article ,
pamfree (Zemedelec) wrote:

So I bit on Bulbmeister's already-growing-crocus deal, and 2 have come up in
buds a week after I planted them! Nice violet outsides, I'm waiting on the
insides. The multiflowered ones are biding their time.
zemedelec

I got a bunch of the sale bulbs too. The multiflowered ones, right, not
doing anything, I look forward to them next year though. Ah, but the C.
pulchellis, they began blooming scarsely almost at once, are strong little
fellows, & look just amazing even through the week of frost we've had &
are still having. Here they a
http://www.paghat.com/crocuspulchellis.html

I didn't need any more C. speciosus as I have three drifts of them & after
two years still haven't quite figured out the perfect groundcover to grow
with them to hold their way-too-floppy flowers upright. The ones I planted
in an old naturalized expanse of muscari looked the best, & are pictured
he
http://www.paghat.com/autumncrocusshowy.html
I hate that these so easily fall over on their sides & get ruined, but the
patch in muscari that didn't fall over has been blooming a full month
without letting up. By comparison the Saffron crocuses with sturdier stems
lasted only two weeks before the first night of hard rain eradicated them.
I haven't gotten a page up for the saffrons yet, but here is a photo of
the regular saffron crocus:
http://www.paghat.com/images/saffron_octob.jpg
and here is the "Kashmir" saffron crocus:
http://www.paghat.com/images/saffron_octobe.jpg

Autumn crocuses will never supplant my esteme for cyclamens as the best
autumn bloomers, but they are definitely also wonders. Both are kind of
necessary, cyclamens brinbging blooms to shade, autumn crocuses to sunny
spots. Here is Cyclamen hederifolium for comparison of looks:
http://www.paghat.com/cyclamen.html
And though la year the wild form C. persicum did lousy & I doubted they
would ever do well, this year they are doing fine, even right now after a
week of frost:
http://www.paghat.com/cyclamenpersicum.html
When these are gone, C. coum will be replacing them so that cyclamens
continue through winter right into spring.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/