RARE BULB NURSERY. LATVIA
by Dr. Janis Ruksans & Liga Popova

Dažas Centrālāzijas fritilārijas. F. bucharica (pirmie divi attēli) labi aug arī ārā - pirms diviem gadiem decembrī atradu noliktavā aizmirstu kasti ar tās sēklaudžiem. Tos izbēru dārzā un apklāju ar smilšu kārtu. Nu jau otro gadu zied un zeme apkārt pilna ar tikko sadīgušiem sēklaudžiem.

Pārējās trīs no Irānas, Afganistānas un Turkmēnijas gan pie mums ārā neaugs. Der tikai audzēšanai podos.

In garden is blooming hardiest of cyclamens - C. kusnetzovii from Crimea (territory of Ukraine at present occupied by Russia). Blooms many tulips - in early hours one of the best is Tulipa hissarica from Tajikistan (Hodji-obi-Garm, Varzob gorge). In afternoon flowers open Tulipa lownei,(Israel) grown from seeds sent to me by my friend Oron Peri.

Earlier named as Scilla gorganica now the name is changed to Fessia gorganica. Collected in Iran, Gorgan Province.

Some gymnospermiums - pelloponesiacum, albertii, scipetarum - just finished blooming

Selfsterile is one of the rarest corydalis - Corydalis gorinensis - known only from one hill between hudreds of kilometers of Siberian unpassable bogs. I have only one tuber. Few seedlings of it turned hybrids - light yellow is hybrid with C. magadanica

Variability in Iris winkleri - the latest reticulata iris to bloom.

In greenhouse almost all crocuses finished blooming. Today I brought outside pots with abantensis, pelistericus, scardicus and cvijicii. Tomorrow will continue with veluchensis, heuffelianus and scepusinensis.
But in garden just now nicely blooms several others. Mostly some surplus or not so good quality corms which I didn't want to throw away. Blooms Crocus korolkowii Apricot - corms were just, just living when I planted them in ornamental bed - but all alive and bloom now together with sublimis tricolor, atticus and some another which name I forgot - so long ago it was planted, most likely it was some cultivar, which I didn't want to grow more.

Many years ago I throw seeds of C. heuffelianus in shrubs - now they nicely bloom. Small bulblets of  Alan McMurtrie's Iris reticulata hybrids left unharvested on field where many years ago was beds with them. Now there are meadow but irises still bloom.
White heuffelianus are selfsawn seedlings of Carpathian Wonder.

Some Russians put under doubt Iris pskemensis writing that there are no difference with Iris kolpakowskiana. So I visited greenhouse for some pictures this morning. On the first picture both - on left kolpakowskiana, on right pskemensis. I specially replaced pot to pot both flowers side by side, for you can see and comparer both species. Relating high altitudes there are next 2 pictures from 3.500 m altitude. Someone could again ask - what is difference with kolpakowskiana, reply is - you must see the bulb, completely different covers and colour. And the last picture - Iris sisianica - again I could be asked - what is the difference with ordinar reticulata - reply again, check the bulbs. All pictures made this morning, still blooms some kolpakowskiana, in full bloom pskemensis (it always follows kolpakowskianas) and sisianica (all other reticulatas already finished).

Seem that those two are the last crocuses of season - Croicus minimus Bavella and Crocus pelistericus

Now top plant is Corydalis, but Fritillarias just started, so few more nice plants I can show here.
The first two pictures are Fritillaria serpenticola - one of the dwarfest species from Turkey.
Fritillaria collina this year didn't grew tall, but regardless of shorter stem formed huge flower. It comes from Georgia, Krestovi Pass, Caucasus mnt.
Fritillaria zagrica and gibbosa - both are from Iran.

Started blooming of Fritillarias. Here only 2 pictures - the first is unidentified species from Nemrutdag near Lake Van. May be some can tell me name?
And the next is still unnamed new species from nr. Pulkhakim. Original stock was lost and it was restored from seeds. Unfortunately it easy hybridizes with F. bucharica and it took long time to restore correct, typical stock. Main features separating both are Pulkhakim frit blooms earlier, it has glaucous green leaves (in bucharica they are soft green) and most prominent are its twisted leaves, with in bucharica are smooth edged.

Iris pskemense - it was found accidentally looking for Iris albomarginata, growing almost side by side over village Pskem. We could reach this place only with subport of State Secretary of Defense of Uzbekistan, using military jeep, as the region is closed for visitors due very (exstremely) brutal repressions to local people (using napalm).

Allium libani collected in Syris before there started war. On the first picture how it looks today, on 2nd how it will look after around week (picture maid 2 years ago) - one of my mostly loved Alliums.

For the first time in my collection blooms Iris sisianica from Armenia - recently published by my friends Dima Zubov (Ukraine) and Leonid Bondarenko (Lithuania). The single reticulata iris forming long side growing stolones - see 2nd photo maid by Dima.

Crocuses almost finished but now cames Corydalis fest. Here 3 species, difficult for outside, but good in pots - all from Iran and starting from top - Corydalis hyrcana (16IRS-082), then 2 colour forms of Corydalis haussknechtii (17IRS-038 and 050), collected at two different, quite distant localities (the purple in wild was more impressive) and last is very special Corydalis verticillaris ssp. boissieri (17IRS-042).

On the first picture - outside of our nursery yesterday, but in greenhouse Richard Bloom (UK) picturing the last crocuses, still in flower. In another corner blooms Corydalis hyrcana, known only from single gorge in Iran, but in another greenhouse pops out different Eremurus.

Tagad dažas atlases no Crocus sieberi, kas savvaļā aug Krētas kalnos.

Few selections of C. sieberi, collected on Omalos Plain on Crete, Greece.

Now 2 forms of Crocus concinnus - the first is mine selection, the next done by my Chech friend Vaclav Jošt
Then Crocus crewei
Light form of Crocus cyprius
And as last the single population of Crocus danfordiae where I observed together all 3 colours, although I'm still in some doubt, isn't there some unintentional mix made by mice in bulb shed. This spring I with great surprise found between mine, supposedly (and many years before being such) very clean stock of Bowles' White, few plants with blue flowers - typical wild Cretan: boxes with both were side by side in bulb shed.

Crocuses are in full bloom and now they are joyned by reticulata irises - so in this entry some more pictures of reticulatas.

Krokusi ir pilnos ziedos, bet tagad tiem pievienojas tīkliņskalbes.

Es nelietoju tādas lietas kā Messenger un līdzīgas. Ja vēlaties sazināties - rakstiet uz e-pastu janis.bulb@hawk.lv vai zvaniet 29418440. Tādēl atvainojos tiem, kam neesmu atbildējis uz jautājumiem.

I'm not using such e-tools as Messenger and similar. If you want contact me - please write to janis.bulb@hawk.lv or call me +371-29418440. So I apologize to those who didn't got my reply.

I can't withstand temptation to show crocus named after me. Crocus ruksansii for the first time blooms so abundantly in my collection. I four times climbed up to top of mountains on Karpathos Island searching for this crocus and always returned with empty hands. Now my heart and leg conditions seem not more allows to make fifth attempt to see it blooming in wild. It was described by my Ukrainian friend Dima Zubov. It is something similar to C. nubigena, but well separable by several important features and flowers are the smallest between all former "nubigenas". Anther colour vary - mostly are with black, but sometimes are plain yellow, that individual with yellow backside of flower segments has yellow anthers, too. All flowers were pollinated and I hope for good seed crop.

Some more crocuses