Crocus (Autumn)

Crocus asumaniae

White or palest violet flowers with a hazy yellow throat and long branches to the vivid red-orange styles, which may be used as saffron.

Easy in a bulb frame or pot if not over-baked in summer. In the garden does quite well in a sunny, well-drained raised bed.A lovely plant, recently discovered in Southern Turkey and slowly becoming more widespread.

Crocus asumaniaecroasuasu	£4.00		1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
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Crocus banaticus

Intense soft violet flowers with fantastically frilled styles, the outer petals longer than the inners, lending a unique 1ris-like appearance. A superb plant which more people should grow.

Likes leafy soil and a light shade, in the garden, without lifting, and with no dry summer rest. However it is good in a pan.

Crocus banaticuscrobanban	£6.00		1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
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Crocus banaticus Snowdrift

The loveliest colour form of what I regard as the most beautiful of all autumn Crocus with unblemished white Iris-like flowers in September.

The species makes quite small bulbs but this is normal and these flower profusely.

A superb plant and hard to over-praise.

Crocus banaticus Snowdriftcrobanear	£15.50		1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
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Crocus cancellatus mazziaricus Rendina

A superbly coloured selection with mineral violet flowers toning to white, then warm yellow in the throat which offers a perfect foil for the bright orange, frilly styles.

Decorative, dependable and a good selection from material found in Greece some years ago.

Crocus cancellatus mazziaricus Rendinacromazren	£4.50		1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
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Crocus cartwrightianus

The true plant with deep violet flowers are striped darker violet whilst in the centre sit chrome yellow anthers and red stigmas. The stunning colours are further enhanced by a strong fragrance of saffron.

This is without a doubt the best saffron Crocus and the best producer of saffron for outside in the UK.

Crocus cartwrightianuscrocarcar	£7.50		1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
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Crocus cartwrightianus Halloween

Grown from one seedling out of our original find, CEH.613.

White with a soft infusion of purple. It has a purple throat and contrasting yellow and red, anthers and style branches.

Probably the most attractive clone selected from cartwrightianus but slow to propagate. It flowers around Halloween, if planted by mid-September.

Since it is a clone all plants flower together, unlike the CEH.613 stock, which reflects the full variation of the original population and its subsequent progeny.

Crocus cartwrightianus Halloweencrocarhal	£9.50		1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
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Crocus cartwrightianus Marcel

This and its sibling Michel were selected by Antoine Hoog from CEH.613 (Evvia, 1981) seedlings and named after his two sons. They are close in terms of size and overall appearance.

Marcel has flowers of a very pale lilac hinted with white and contrasted with a lovely violet throat star and a violet tube. Red and yellow, stigmata and anthers complete the picture.

Crocus cartwrightianus Marcelcrocarmar	£4.50		1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
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Crocus cartwrightianus Michel

A second clonal selection from seedlings raised from our 1981 collection CEH-613 made in Southern Evvia. Michel is the sibling clone to Marcel.

The flower colour here is a lovely pure white with the throat shaded with just a hint of pallid violet-grey in the form of a star made of thin lines. Bright red and yellow styles and stigmas add a lovely, colourful contrast. Both clones grow and flower readily.

Crocus cartwrightianus Michelcrocarmic	£4.50		1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
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Crocus clusii Poseidon

A free-flowering selection originally made from Portuguese stock. This has superb, bright violet flowers with a faint tracery of violet lines at the base.

This garden clone is both dependable and very attractive. It always flowers in November and stands up very well to the weather then, staying upright and in good condition when heavy rain or bad weather flattens other species around it.

Crocus clusii Poseidoncroclupos	£4.00		1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
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Crocus goulimyi

A wonderful autumnal species with robust violet flowers held on long, strong tubes, in October.

This species from southern Greece will stand the worst autumnal weather and still look good, flowering and increasing well.

Raised from our 1982 collection in Mani, Greece where it was first discovered by Dr C. N. Goulimyis in the early 1950s.

Crocus goulimyicrogougou	£2.25		1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
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Crocus goulimyi leucantha

This is the restricted endemic of Malea in southern Greece (the next peninsula along from the more well-known Mani).

It bears wispy white flowers in the autumn. It retains the characteristic long tubes of the more well-known pale purple type species.

Easily grown in a sunny well-drained spot or pot.

Crocus goulimyi leucanthacrogouleu	£3.50		1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
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Crocus hadriaticus Alepohori

An elegant flower, longer and not as goblet shaped as the other clones, infused with a trace of violet towards the petal tips.

The throat is gold with a red stain at the base, and this serves to draw attention to the lovely yellow and red anthers and style.

Crocus hadriaticus Alepohoricrohadale	£3.50		1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
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Crocus hadriaticus lilacinus

This is the little known and rarely seen form in which the flowers are an attractive shade of light violet, the centre of the flower being of a contrasting yellow.

This very vigorous non-clonal stock does well outside and is a good producer of saffron.

Crocus hadriaticus lilacinuscrohadlil	£4.50		1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
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Crocus hadriaticus Purple Heart

This has white flowers with a lovely purple centre to the throat area. The possibility of a hybrid origin cannot be discounted, but cannot yet be verified either.

Whatever the origins this is a gorgeous new introduction, well suited to growth outside and promising to be a great new garden plant.

Crocus hadriaticus Purple Heartcronivpur	£7.50		1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
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Crocus hyemalis

This is a rare species in cultivation but ironically it is spread widely across Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and is the commonest Crocus in Israel. It has fragrant, white flowers, slightly flecked with varying amounts of violet on the reverse.

Internally it has a deep golden, to almost orange, throat which shows through the translucent petals to the outside. The gold is enhanced by a finely divided orange style, with up to 15 branches and contrasted with stunning black anthers.

This is not one for the garden, as it is tender in very severe winters and it may need frost protection (it does not need more than this and dislikes too much heat) in cold climates, so alpine house is best - unless you wish to take a gamble. Under glass it starts blooming in mid-winter and carries on until January. A fertile, well-drained, loam-based compost is all that it needs with a dry summer rest after leaf dormancy.

Crocus hyemalis crohyehye	£6.50		1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Flowering sized but naturally not a large corm. Large view