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Where
the garden meets the wild
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CROCUS AUTUMN-FLOWERING CROCUS Iridaceae (Iris family). |
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| Return to Plants Index Bulbs Index Spring-flowering crocus Colchicum Tecophilaea | ||
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Crocus tournefortii. Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
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Autumn-flowering crocuses are often the garden's last hurrah. Choose an array with different blooming times, from September through November and beyond. Plant them in groups and swathes where you can see them from indoors. They like sun to dappled deciduous shade in porous, well drained soil. Please order for shipping in August-September. |
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| In the complex world of Crocus taxonomy and appreciation, connoisseurs rely on a handful of experts. | ||
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
Crocus asumaniae Brian Mathew
& Turhan Baytop. This milk-white member of the "saffron"
group is named for the Turkish botanist Asuman Baytop, wife of Turhan Baytop. Our
plants descend from specimens collected in Turkey's Antalya province at
1000 m (3000') by Jimmy Persson (JP.88-45) of Göteborg Botanic Garden.
Zone 7?
Corm (Fall shipping only). $7.00 |
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Photograph © Paige Woodward
Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
Crocus banaticus Gay.
This is one of the most sought-after crocuses. Native from
northern Romania through the Balkans to SW Russia, its large flowers, blooming in September-November,
are lilac to purple, the outer 3 segments about 1.5 times as large as
the inner 3. The stigmata, also lilac to purple, are finely divided. Our
plants descend from corms collected in 1973 by Milan
Prášil in NW Romania, in oak forest at about 700 m (2100')
and grown on from seed. Height 10-20 cm (4-8"). Zone 4. Award
of Garden Merit (Royal Horticultural Society) 1993.
Corm (Fall shipping only). $11.00 |
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
Crocus
boryi Gay. This goblet-shaped beauty has a flame-orange heart and
thread-like, flame-orange stigmata set off by white anthers. It blooms in October-November
and its leaves are easily damaged by frost. Grow it in a glasshouse. Our
plants descend from corms collected in 1991 by Vladimír Vasák
in the Peloponnesus (Messenia province) N of Kalamata at 100 m (300').
Height 7-10 cm (3-4"). Zone 7?
Corm (Fall shipping only). $7.50. |
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Photographs © Paige Woodward
Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
Crocus
cartwrightianus Herb.
Wild saffron. This is the diminutive ancestor of the cultivated saffron crocus, C. sativus. It
is much more floriferous, producing up to 10 flowers per corm in November-December,
and also produces excellent saffron. Most unusual, the flower remains open at night. It is lilac (the shade may vary) with fine purple
feathering and lines. The orange-red stigma is large and protruding. Our
corms descend from material collected by
Paul
Christian, David Elliott and Antoine Hoog on
the Greek island of Euboeia (Evvia) in 1982,
where it was growing in soil eroded from mica-schist. Height 5-8 cm (2-3"). Award
of Garden Merit (Royal Horticultural Society) 1993. Zone 6,
perhaps colder. Corm (Fall shipping only). $5.50 |
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog
Photograph © Paige Woodward |
Crocus
cartwrightianus Herb.
Wild saffron, pale form.
This is white with a dark eye, reminiscent of C.
mathewii. It is also fragrant and blooms
in October-November. Owing to a mistaken ID,
and although we ought to have trusted our own judgment, we have offered
this previously as C. hadriaticus subsp. hadriaticus 'Taygetos'.
Under any name this is a good garden plant, enduring and
multiplying. Zone 6, perhaps colder.
Corm (Fall shipping only). $7.00 |
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog
Photograph © Paige Woodward |
Crocus hadriaticus Herb.
subsp. hadriaticus ‘Indian Summer’.
This is a heritage Crocus, collected by E.A. Bowles in the central
Peloponnesus and
cherished in gardens for much of a century. Fragrant,
gold-hearted white flowers, their segments 2-2.5 cm (1") long, bloom
in October-November. In a sunny, well drained
spot this selection can take considerable frost. The outer perianth segments
have grey
lines from the base down the perianth tube. Native to W and S Greece. Height 8-12 cm (3-4"). Zone 6.
Corm (Fall shipping only). $6.50 |
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
Crocus hadriaticus Herb. forma
lilacinus B.
Mathew 'Taygetos'. This form, white with a pale pink-violet
exterior and scented, is choice and rare. It
blooms in September-October. The corms we
offer descend from a collection made by Antoine Hoog on
Mt. Taygetos in the Peloponnesus in 1986. They have proved more vigorous
than other selections of this form. Height 7-10 cm (2-4"). Zone
6. Corm (Fall shipping only). $8.00 |
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 Photograph © Tony Goode |
Crocus mathewii Kerndorff & Pasche.
Dream
crocus. Choice and rare. Described only a
little over a decade
ago, this beautiful plant was named for the British Crocus expert Brian
Mathew. It is native to a few dry slopes in the Lycian Taurus Mountains
in S Turkey. Our corms descend from the type collection made there by
Helmut Kerndorff and Erich Pasche at 400-1100 m (1300-3600') in
1992. Dry summer. Zone 6, perhaps colder.
Corm (Fall shipping only). $32.00 |
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
Crocus pulchellus
Herb. ‘Inspiration’.
Substantial and intensely blue flowers with an orange heart, an orange
style and cream anthers bloom in October.
This species is native to the Balkans and Turkey. 'Inspiration' was
selected by the late Michael Hoog
of Zwanenburg nursery in Holland from material collected in 1978 by Maria
and Rolf Mertens in Bursa province in W Turkey at about 1600 m (5200'). Height
10 cm (4"). Zone 6. Award
of Merit Trial Grounds, Royal General Bulbgrowers' Association (KAVB),
1999. Corm (Fall shipping only). $5.00 |
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Photographs © Paige Woodward |
Crocus speciosus M. Bieberstein 'Aino'.
Lilac-blue
flowers with darker veins and an orange, much-branched style bloom
in September-November. The species is native to
grasslands and open woods in the Crimea and the Caucasus ~ N Iran, central
and N Turkey. Speciosus
means "beautiful"; this lovely selection is named for the
Lithuanian plantswoman Aino Paivel, who collected it in the 1980s in the Crimea near
Yalta in mountain meadows at 1000-1200 m (3300-4000'). At first glance,
you'd think this was the famous clone 'Oxonian' ~ but come autumn
storms and frosty nights, 'Oxonian' collapses
while 'Aino' endures.
Award of Merit Trial Grounds, Netherlands
Royal General Bulbgrowers' Association (KAVB), 1999. Cold winter; warm,
sometimes rainy (but never soggy) summer. Height 10-15 cm
(4-6"). Zone 4.
Corm (Fall shipping only). $4.50 |
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
Crocus
tournefortii Gay. Much desired for its highly dissected,
flame-red stigmata, this bluish-white flower with a golden throat and
white anthers blooms in November-December. Protect
it in a glasshouse. Our plants descend from corms collected by Antoine
Hoog (AH 0002) on the Greek island of Karpathos in moist part shade. This
is one of just three crocuses known to remain
open when the sky is dark
whether at night or in bad weather. (The other two are C. moabiticus and
C. cartwrightianus). Height 5-10 cm (2-4"). Zone
7?
Corm (Fall shipping only). $15.00 |
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| Return to Plants Index Bulbs Index Spring-flowering crocus Colchicum Tecophilaea | ||
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