Crocus niveus in a cold climate
Antennaria@aol.com (Sat, 13 Nov 2004 14:14:47 PST)

"Boyce Tankersley" btankers@chicagobotanic.org wrote:

Hi Boyce,

A two-fold response.

Regarding Crocus niveus, it's a splendid species which has flowered well
since I received corms in 2000. I'm in northern New England, so my climate might
be somewhat similar to yours, in terms of the cold weather arriving at the
same time the fall crocus begin blooming. We too, had killing frosts in
September. In the past seevral weeks we've had many nights of deep frosts (down to 20
F) and as of last weekend, there were still some flowers on this species and
several other crocus (tournefortii, goulimyi, serotinus, pallasii, and the
tiny Colchicum cupanii). I can't tell if it's still in bloom now, as we had 3
inches of wet snow last night, which is freezing up into a white crust today and
tonight. If tomorrow warms up and the snow melts a little bit, I'll check to
see if it still has more buds.

What I particularly like about C. niveus, is just how many blooms each corm
can make in succession over a period of many weeks. I have both the pure
white form and the more common form that is ever so slightly tinged with violet.
I think you should try it. Oh, almost forgot, the flowers are nicely perfumed.

Second item... Boyce, I recall an email I received from you, which I have
surely lost in the mad scattered chaos that characterizes my email inbox (and
based on AOL's annoying habit of deleting emails one keeps in one's inbox that
are a month old or so). So, please accept my apology for not getting back to
you, and I hope that we can pick up where we left off. Your PBS message jolted
my memory of the lost email and the overdue response.

Cheers to you and PBS'rs at large,

Mark McDonough Pepperell, Massachusetts, United States
antennaria@aol.com "New England" USDA Zone 5
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