fall crocus
Jane McGary (Thu, 12 Aug 2004 10:09:56 PDT)

Dave Karnstedt wrote,
As for Oregon being "cool" -- temperatures each day of this past week have

True; but the nights, at least at my home (which is about 1000 feet higher
in elevation than Dave's) are in the fifties F (10-15 degrees C), and the
humidity has mostly been below 20%. This explains much of the difference
between plants that do well in hot weather on the North American east coast
and those that do well in it on the west coast.

However, I don't think crocuses are affected much by this, since at the
depth they lie dormant, the soil temperature doesn't vary much from day to
night.

I do suspect, however, that some species of crocus are more attractive to
predators than others and are eaten preferentially (this is just an
anecdotal observation). C. banaticus is always eaten here in the garden,
but C. speciosus seems never to be. Dave is right that C. speciosus does
well in summer-irrigated sites, and C. vernus also prefers summer moisture.

Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon, USA