Many years ago I was invited to visit the garden of Wayne Roderick, famed for Lavandula “Martha Roderick” and an iconic force in the California Native Plant Society. He was a great bulb collector and his garden reflected it. Out of season, most of the garden looked like bare dirt, mulch, and rock, hiding all his treasures. He was disappointed that his collections of Amaryllis belladonna (naked ladies) were done for the season but there were so many others flowering, including Nerine, Schizostylis, Cyclamen, Sternbergias, and Crocus, they weren’t missed by me. The most impressive by far was the Brunsvigia, enormous bulbs of basketball size and greater, half exposed at the surface. The flower clusters, in a shade of smoky deep rose, were about two feet across on a stalk at least five feet tall.

He also had extensive plantings of Colchicums throughout the garden. It was the first time I had seen them in a garden setting and was impressed with their variations, colors, and robustness. Nothing at all like their pictures in catalogs or lonely bulbs on a display shelf. Beautiful plants.