Crocus

[Lara]

I wrote so much about the crocus on mrsD's Got too many books? thread and lo and behold, like magic, I go out into my garden this morning and there is this beautiful pink flower.

One of my neighbours (90s) recently left her home here across the street to go to a nursing home. She and I have always been very close and I looked after her a lot until it was time that she couldn't live independently anymore.

Her daughter-in-law bought me over some pots that her Mum thought I would like to have. One of them is a pure white geranium and another was this huge pot with grassy leaves in it the shape of garlic chives. lol

I thought it was a pot full of weeds, but when I went outside this morning there is this beauiftul pink crocus. Well, I think it's a crocus, but it has totally different shaped foliage from my simple little white crocus.

I took a few photos with my very old phone. Terrible quality but hopefully they come out better than I thought. This is a crocus???

[mrsD]

Regular crocus is not commonly pink.

But Autumn crocus can be. There are several types, one with huge leaves and one more grasslike. They bloom in fall here, but the foliage comes up in spring.

If you do "autumn crocus" in Google images...you might find one to match. Most autumn crocus are violet ranging to hot pink.

I have 2 varieties here. They tend to be larger than spring blooming crocus.

[Lara]

Thanks mrsD.

It is technically Autumn here now actually although it'll really be summer until the end of April weatherwise.

This one flower is much larger than my little white crocus' I have around the garden here. The leaves of the white one are more pointed and the flower comes out of the top. This pink flower came up on a different stalk more like a bulb and the leaves are not pointed and are thick and blunt like a garlic chive.

I'll check out the images again.

[mrsD]

Because the autumn variety blooms AFTER the foliage by months, the flowers tend to just appear! Not connected to leaves if they still exist even. Ours come right up out of the soil.

The autumn crocus that has large fleshy leaves, often over a foot tall, has a tall pink flower in Sept Oct here. The flowers come up in fall when the foliage is gone. They can be almost a foot tall,
with color on 1/2 of that --maybe 6 in. My variety is a lighter pink than yours. But it is definitely pink.

The other autumn one we have has thin, grasslike foliage, and a light violet flower in Oct. They are smaller, shorter by far.

Some species tulips also have unusual foliage.

I think the only way to know for sure is to dig up and see if it is a bulb and go from there. Take a food fork and just lift a bit to see what is under there. It won't upset the plant much if it is a little lift. (rodents do this all the time where I live-- pesky chipmunks). If the soil is a bit moist you can knock the plant out of the pot, gently and see if any bulbs show along the edges. That will work too. I often knock out my seedlings to see how the roots are coming along, to help decide when to move up to a bigger pot. Done gently and the soil stays together and you just put it back --no harm.

Google species tulips also....some are small and resemble crocus too.

Who knows what is in Australia... something imported, or some indigenous plant? Could be anything.

[Lara]

I found a photo in Images.

It looks exactly the same as mine and the foliage is the same as well.

It's really lovely to have a surprise like that sprout out of a pot of what I thought was just a grass or weed. It's also nice that was a gift.

Haven't had time to find out more yet but at least I know it's a Crocus.

[mrsD]

We are having an early warm day today!

The crocus under an old oak in back, are heated by reflected
South exposure sun on the wooden fence, and come up earlier than our others.

The little purple species have been blooming for a couple of days scattered in the yard.

These today are early hybrid larger ones. Both clumps come from a few bulbs I put in decades ago...that have just increased.
That spot is warm surrounded by some icy mud that I had to go thru to get these two photos. They look inviting from a distance.

That is great you found your mystery plant. It is fun to have surprises. When my son moved into his first home, he had a mystery plant by the back patio sliding door, in some shade.
It came up before anything else, and we discovered it was a Hellebore!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellebore

First time I had ever seen one!

You know, Lara, Google images is just so handy! What did we do before it came about? LOL

[Lara]

Icy mud! Golly Gosh.

They're beautiful. Thanks SO much for going through the icy mud to take the photos.

I love Hellebores. I was supposed to do a botanical art course some years back but wasn't able to do it because my daughter was ill. Hellebores are great flowers/plants to paint in watercolour.

I have this book on Medieval Flowers. It's just amazing.

It's in the section titled "Woodlands"
Says

Hellebores and snowdrops were the earliest reminders that winter might eventually end, followed by clumps of delicate wild daffodils, whose lingering presence marks the sites of long-forgotten monasteries to this day.

Thanks for that.

[Zipster]

Awesome! Mine just came up (and then died quickly - they're in the shade). It's so nice to have plants that come up automatically, year after year!

[Lara]

Very neat, Zipster. I'm in Southern Hemisphere so mine were Autumn Crocus. They've stopped now, so will have to wait again for Spring I guess, but I just love those surprises, especially in this sub-tropical climate where nothing much changes from season to season.