Description
(C. gramosensis)
CEH.560. A wonderful species spread across parts of what was Yugoslavia and Northern Greece, where it is always limited to mountain habitats.
Classically the flowers of what everyone thought was cvijicii were said to exist in shades of cream, primrose and yellow. However the paler forms are now said to be hybrid between what we thought was C. cvijicii (now called gramosensis) and true cvijicii (which is found in a different place and which is white). The yellow plant only is illustrated and our stock is raised from the best, yellow, Greek forms ( CEH.560) which we found on Mount Vermion in 1982. It shows some slight colour variation, however all are deliciously and uniquely scented of Freesia. This is a very worthy addition to any collection.
Rarely offered and slow to increase, but easily grown, prefers a humus-rich soil, slight shade and a slightly damp summer, in keeping with its mountain home where it is almost always found on cooler, damper, North-facing slopes. This does not like hot dry conditions nor does it want an excessively hot, dry rest in summer.
Recent reclassifications of Crocus means that some of the Greek plants (of which this stock is one) always regarded as C. cvijicii may now have a new name (Crocus gramosensis), while confusingly cvijicii itself would remain as a valid name for other plants (which are not yellow) and the two names are not synonyms. Until the situation is clearer, we can only bemoan the loss of an apparently valid name (accepted by Kew) has served it well since 1926 but which was wrongly identified all along.
