“How can you not like this carpet of colors! Snow outside, variety of colors in the greenhouse, flowers smell. So many shades,” horticulturist and breeder Jānis Rukšāns explains his passion for crocuses so simply.
His book “The World of Crocuses” was published five years ago, its first supplement “The first supplement” has just been published. “A lot of new things have been discovered during this time, because crocuses are intensively studied as a decorative plant. I already promised in the previous book that there will be an addition, which will contain the new one,” says the researcher and adds that the book contains not only descriptions of newly discovered species, but also the latest insights into growing crocuses, as well as corrected errors. “When researching, you always find something new where everything seems to be clear,” emphasizes J. Rukšāns and tells how he decided to examine Dunford’s crocuses with a magnifying glass, which have almost the smallest flowers – their length usually does not exceed 1.5 cm. They are distributed in Turkey in different regions and appear in Iran, a thousand kilometers away. “It was thought to be one species. I see that the pollen stalks are hairy, but the description says they are bare. Probably seen with the eyes, but these hairs are a feature that distinguishes the species. When you write a work, you haven’t seen all the crocuses, if a species is in the collection, but someone else has already described it, don’t research it in minute details,” J. Rukšāns reveals the botanist’s work and emphasizes that you can also find something new in what you have studied.
Last year, he was on an expedition in North Macedonia, collected a beautiful crocus and was sure that it was a long-known species. It turned out that the known species grows only in acidic soils, but Jānis’s find is in calcareous ones. “Then you can study, the color of the petals is the same, but the inside is lighter. The Germans also carry out genetic analysis and prove that the species are related but different. Go along the beds, see that the flowers are different, but you have to find with what, what is that little trick that you can express in words, because what you see doesn’t mean anything. You can’t write that it looks different. The crocuses are the same, but when you dig it out, it turns out that one has white leaves without chlorophyll, the other yellow, until then I only saw that the colors of the flowers were different. You can’t just write – light or dark purple – because everyone will understand it differently,” says J. Rukšāns.
The new book contains 31 new crocus species discovered and described in the world. From last year’s expedition in Iran, J. Rukšāns has already described six new crocus species found in the book. He reveals that there will be at least a couple more. In his lifetime, being a gardener, not a botanist, J. Rukšāns has discovered and described about 70 new bulbous species, of which 48 are crocus species. 260 crocus species have been described in the world. There are two more that arrived after the book was written, and in the near future there will be more from Jordan, Israel, the Balkans.
The book goes out into the world. It was published by the Latvian Academy of Sciences. The author dedicates the books to the freedom fighters of Ukraine, five euros from each edition sold are donated to the army that defends its country. J. Rukšāns is proud to say that colleagues and friends in different countries highly appreciated the publication – this is how a book should be: high-quality printing, tastefully and visually presented and with clearly understandable information. The composition of the book was created by the author Anda Nordena, it was printed in “Latgales druka”.
Now is the time for J.Rukšanas to enjoy the blooming of crocuses and receive guests. “You also have to find time for research, because the moment of flowering is short. You can’t do everything. This year I will study Danford’s crocuses, next year the ones I brought from Iran last year,” says J. Rukšāns and reveals that there was a plan to go on an expedition to Iran this year as well, but friends advised against it, because the situation in the country is turbulent. He thinks that he could go to North Macedonia at the beginning of June. The crocuses bloom late in the mountains there.
Almost everyone who comes on an excursion to Jānis Rukšanas immediately wants to have the same beauty in his garden. The gardener says that many people ask where they can buy such flower bulbs. Nowhere at this time. It is the collection of J. Rukšanas, the largest in the world, with 1700 crocus samples. There is no kennel here.
Most of the Dutch varieties are on sale in stores every day. J. Rukšans proudly tells that he has two old Dutch breeds. After the Second World War, they were brought to Australia and preserved in a nursery. The gardener admits that there are no such crocuses elsewhere in Europe. The crocuses that have traveled the world’s roads have slowly settled in Raiskumas, because when it’s flowering time in Australia, it’s autumn in Latvia.
When the excursionists’ first shouts of joy have died down, the questions begin. “I explained that there are crocuses that bloom in spring and autumn and they are not late bloomers. They also have species that bloom in spring and autumn. How can you tell the difference between dahlias and crocuses? I tell you that crocuses are a family of irises, and daylilies are a family of lilies. In the Middle Ages, lilies were called – son before father – because the seeds appear in the spring, and the flower in the autumn,” says J. Rukšāns.
Only a few people do not ask when Jānis started creating a collection. When he says that he became interested in bulbs at the age of 12, many do not believe him. J. Rukšāns wrote the first book about crocuses already in the 80s. It was about varieties found in the Soviet Union. With the time of the free state, expeditions began. Dārzkopis participated in 26 scientific research expeditions in Central Asia, Crimea, Caucasus, Far East, Urals, Carpathians, Turkey. More than half of the crocus species discovered in Iran are the merit of a Latvian.
The owner leads along the carpet of flowers, he has his own story about each species of crocus. Those from Turkey, a miracle of nature, interbreed in the wild. At the top of the mountain slopes, yellow grows, and blue at the bottom, they interbreed, and in the middle there are hybrids. This does not happen elsewhere in nature. Here is the rarest pink crocus in the world. It is an error of nature, found among the whites. Very difficult to propagate, the seeds grow white.
The world of crocuses is not only beautiful, but also fascinating. When the snow melts, crocuses will bloom in many gardens. J. Rukšāns admits that, unfortunately, it is not easy to grow crocuses in the lawn. “If the lawn is mowed intensively, crocuses will not grow for more than a couple of years. The lawn should not be dense, then the flower will multiply. But water rats and mice wreak havoc. They also destroyed the larkspur bed in the park in Cēsis after two years,” J. Rukšāns shares his experience and adds that his wife Guna arranged the crocuses among the hostas, in the spring, when they are still waking up, the crocuses bloom and gradually sow further.
In the greenhouse, catching the sun, larks gradually wake up, alpine violets, mountain irises bloom. Spring comes with blooming.
