We Visited The Largest Crocus Flower Collection In The World Starts Blooming

Did you know that around 250 varieties of crocus flowers, and one man in Latvia, Jānis Rukšāns, has the world’s largest collection? We visited him this week to see how the collection has started the bloom! He currently has around 1700 bulbs, and they are blooming gradually, so in no two days, the visit would be the same!

Jānis is also an amazing storyteller – while showing the rarest specimens – the light blue crocus from Turkey, or the pink from Kyrgyzstan, which he calls “a mistake of nature,” as this is a result of mutation, he also tells stories of how he has been part of numerous expeditions to get the rare bulbs all around the world! He recently published a book in the Latvian language about his experience! He says some of his favorite expeditions have been to Turkey and Iran, that have an amazing diversity of crocus flower and fantastic landscapes. He says he has recently received his vaccine and is very much looking forward to resuming the travels!

Visited by: Alina & Jekabs Andrusaitis

Photos by: Jekabs Andrusaitis

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#1 A Rare Variety Of Blue Crocus From Turkey

#2 The Best Days For Visit Are Sunny Ones, As Then Crocus Flowers Open Up And Fill The Flower Nursery With A Honey Like Smell

#3 Another Extremely Rare Specimen! The Pink Crocus From Kyrgyzstan, There Are Only A Few Bulbs In The World. One Was Sent To Jānis, The Other Unfortunately Perished In The Garden Of The Finder. Jānis Has Sent One Bulb To Japan, And He Currently Has Two Himself. It Is Extremely Slow To Reproduce, So In Six Years He Only Has Gotten To Two Bulbs From One

#4 Jānis Keeps A Meticulous List Of All Of The Varieties And Catalogues His Vast Collection With Pictures And Descriptions

#5 Jānis Has Many Other Varieties Of Flowers As Well, Many Lesser Known And Even Indistinguishable By Others

#6 It May Look Like A Common House Variety At First, But When You Notice The Details, You Will See Many Differences In Each Flower

#7 The First Iris Flowers Are Also Blooming In The Same Greenhouse

#8 Extremely Delicate And To Be Only Observed, Not Touched

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#10 Fantastic Color Combinations, Many Originally Found In Nature, But Many He Has Also Developed Himself

#11 Visitors Must Wear A Mask, Only Same Household Members Can Come Together, And Maximum Of 15 People Per Greenhouse

#12 Just Two Weeks Ago We Had -22°c Temperatures, But Now The Spring Has Come And The Greenhouse Is Blooming

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#14 Daffodils Are Also Starting To Come Up

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#17 Close UPS May Reveal Details You Won’t Even Notice With Eyes

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#19 Have You Seen Anything Like This Before?

#20 Black And White Variety

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#22 Jānis Showing The Rare Pink Specimen To The Visitors

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#26 There Are Several Rows Of Beautiful Flowers, And No Two Days Will Be The Same – The Empty Patches Are Places Where Crocus Will Start Blooming Soon

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