Tecophilaea cyanocrocus "hybrids"
Jane McGary (Wed, 24 Aug 2016 11:06:34 PDT)

In a note in the recent BX offering from Roy Herold, we read:

"The following tecophilaea hybrids are the result of hand pollinated,

When Tecophilaea cyanocrocus was rediscovered in the wild in the
mid-elevation Chilean Andes several years ago, the report (published in
/Gayana/, the Chilean botanical journal) mentioned that the flowers were
all, or mostly, of the "leichtlinii" pattern with a white center. I
suspect that this is the typical form of the species, and that the
striking all-blue form that growers consider typical is the result of
selection, either of collected plants or within cultivation. It's
probably not valid to designate the white-centered color form a
botanical variety.

I'm glad to know that descendants of my little population of T.
cyanocrocus are in circulation; I lost mine when I moved a few years ago
and changed their growing situation (obviously not to their liking), but
at least Roy and also Mark Akimoff have their progeny doing well. Mine
all arose from 3 corms purchased from an English vendor in the early
1990s. Incidentally, the change that seems to have doomed them was a
move from a plunged clay pot to a covered, sandy and gritty raised bed.
This is a snowmelt species, and perhaps it needs a cooler summer
dormancy than it got in the same conditions as, e.g., Juno irises
(which, however, also grow and flower rapidly after snowmelt!).

Jane McGary
Portland, Oregon, USA