Sadly, colchicum cultivars are very mixed up in the trade. The pretty flower above was sold to me as ‘Autumn Herald’, but when I go to the Pacific Bulb Society website, I see that ‘Autumn Herald’ looks entirely different. And I have other colchicums with other names that look like my ‘Autumn Herald’. It is a good thing that not knowing the correct name of a flower does not prevent you from enjoying it.
Colchicum agrippinum is one of the smaller flowered colchicums in my collection. I have to be careful to provide it with good drainage or it fails to come back after winter. I don’t mind going to the trouble because I like to see the tessellation. The tricky thing about Colchicum byzantinum is that it is white when it first emerges, and gradually colors up. It was growing in the totally neglected garden of my former home when we first moved there, so must be hard to kill. And it makes lots of new bulbs. It would be a good one to start with. They say ‘Nancy Lindsay’ is a selection of C. autumnale, but it is hard for me to believe, as ‘Nancy Lindsay’ seems far more vigorous and larger as well.‘Poseidon’ and ‘Nancy Lindsay’ share one thing in common: they both have a purple perianth tube. You see, colchicums don’t have stems above the ground. What holds them up is the same stuff the petals are made of. In most colchicums that tube is white, but some lucky ones have a pink to deep reddish purple tube. I am always on the lookout for new cultivars with purple tubes. Otherwise, ‘Nancy Lindsay’ is dainty compared to ‘Poseidon’.Those are the new ones that have opened in the past week. More are coming; I see their pointy buds poking out of the ground. Come back next week and I’ll show you some more.
Would I be better off to plant them in soil located under the eaves? It gets a bit of water when the surrounding ground gets drenched.
Kathy you have some beautiful and unusual ones…mine have not shown up yet which is so strange.
Donna, I hate to say this, but with all the rain we’ve had this summer, it’s possible they rotted. On the other hand, I have had colchicums skip a year of bloom for no reason I could discern, so don’t give up hope!
I saw their foliage so I hope they may still be alive. If I don’t see them, I will find better spots to plant more…
I planted the bulbs you brought me in the garden bed across the driveway and all 3 types are blooming now. So beautiful! I first saw them Sunday evening when we got home from our week in Maine, and that was exciting. But seeing them open in the sun the next day was amazing! That Zephyr is huge!
Yes, ‘Zephyr’ is one of the bigger ones. So glad you are enjoying them!
Fascinating! So they don’t have any underground stems, but in a botanical illustration I saw, they have leaves and seed capsules? Do those form later? Also, learned that colchicum containe colchicine, which is used to treat gout and something called familial Mediterranean fever. It’s also being developed as a cancer fighter! Apparently, it’s poisonous, and foragers have mistaken it for ramsons, or wild garlic. My parents have that growing in their hedgerow, so I’ll have to look to make sure it’s not colchicums!
Lisa, it sounds like you’ve done a bit of research. The leaves emerge in spring, so I’m not sure if you say they form later or much earlier. And sometimes there is a seed capsule in the center of the leaves.
Thanks! π tinyurl.com/agapqh5
You have converted me and I have bulbs waiting to be planted. Today is the day! For some of them anyway.
Aren’t these also referred to as crocuses?
Wendy, they are often called autumn crocuses but they are not true crocuses. I posted about autumn crocuses last year.
Kathy, is there any reason why mine haven’t bloomed this year? Yours look absolutely beautiful π
Different colchicum cultivars and species bloom at different times. Some of mine are just starting to emerge, and ‘Waterlily’ is always the very last. Sometimes a particular colchicum will skip a year for no reason I can figure out. If the leaves come up in spring, it is still alive. But if you have gotten more rain this summer than usual, and if you have clay soil, it is possible that they rotted. I had one colchicum bloom this fall whose blossom had signs of rot on it even as it was emerging from the soil.