New Colchicum book

Jane McGary via pbs pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net
Tue, 15 Sep 2020 16:37:39 PDT
I would be happy to write a review of this book for PBS, as I have grown 
most of the commercial cultivars and perhaps 20 or 25 species from seed 
over the years. I will try to buy it, but I don't have high hopes that 
it will contain a useful key. It sounds more like a book for gardeners 
than an actual monograph, and some of you will know the shortcomings of 
other books in this series. I want something authoritative, at least for 
the present view, so that I can verify the names of my colchicums; I 
know some of them came as seed under the wrong names. I don't blame the 
collectors for this, because one colchicum capsule looks much like 
another, and some species are sympatric in Greece and Turkey.

Regarding the Ruksans books, the photos are great, but there is no 
reason to accept all the names. I still depend on Brian Mathew's "The 
Crocus" for ID purposes, having laid in some copies of articles on 
species identified after it was published. The spate of names recently 
originating in Turkey is even more problematic. Mathew, sensibly in my 
opinion, views Crocus as a genus that exists in continua as well as 
clearly separable species.

Jane McGary, Portland, Oregon, USA


On 9/15/2020 3:25 PM, R Hansen via pbs wrote:
> I have just tried purchasing the book on the RHS website and ran into a problem at the Payment button. I've emailed RHS about the problem but here's hoping they tell me how to resolve that as I've been waiting for a Colchicum book for a very long time! I have Ruksans' Crocus books and I continue to drool over them at every opportunity. I'm so glad someone is still publishing monographs like this, because it seems (I could be wrong.) that Timber Press is spending too much time on general gardening books which are of no interest to me at all.
>
> For anyone who has already purchased the book, are there any volunteers willing to write an in-depth review for the PBS Bulb Garden journal????
>
> Robin Hansen
> Editor, PBS Bulb Garden
>
> Smoky in  Paradise in southwest Oregon, but the wind has changed so there is hope.
>
>
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