Cold Climate Gardening

Some of you may recall that my first acquistion of Colchicum byzantinum ‘Album’ was an impostor. This beauty is undoubtedly the real thing. Not only is it white, but it has the same structure of petals and general floriferous character of the species. I just received and planted this earlier this autumn from Odyssey Bulbs, and it bloomed like a well-established clump. I had thought the first photo was as good as it was going to get, but I was pleasantly surprised. Whoever edited the Colchicum species …

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Russell Stafford of Odyssey Bulbs describes this as “a superior selection whose rich violet flowers are among the deepest in hue of any colchicum’s. . . . It is of robust constitution.” Well, it does seem robust, but not any deeper in color than say, ‘Zephyr.’ It seems like color is such a moving target. Two different people can describe the same flower with two different colors. It makes it very difficult to feel confident that I have a correctly labelled plant. Stafford doesn’t mention a purple perianth tube, but this has one, did you notice?

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Here is another one where I am not sure I have a correctly identified plant, mostly, I suppose, because it is surely not the biggest colchicum on the block. On the other hand, I think Bowles’ description fits: “In C. giganteum the segments open out more widely and remain expanded at an angle of forty-five degrees, almost flat on the upper surface but with a tendency to be twisted towards the apex, and they resemble a Lily or Hippeastrum rather than a Tulip.” It does look rather lily-ish, doesn’t it? Bowles goes on to give it this recommendation: “It is a very distinct and beautiful plant, a strong grower, …

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I bought this from Odyssey Bulbs because I wanted to see how it compared with the C. speciosum I had gotten from another source several years earlier. Wouldn’t you know it, I forgot to take a whiff of the newcomer. But it looks pretty much like the other speciosum. I guess having a lilac tube is no longer considered typical. Photo taken September 23.

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Here you can see that Nancy does indeed have the much-desired purple tube. As with almost all of the photos on this blog, if you click on the image it will take you to an enlarged version of that image.

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I planted ‘Nancy Lindsay’ last year but couldn’t get a photo then. I have yet to see what the autumnale type looks like, but this flower is much bigger and shaped differently than the C. autumnale ‘Album’ that bloomed for me earlier this fall. I can see why it was originally considered its own species: Colchicum pannonicum, because it doesn’t look much like the species. I don’t know who decides these things, or how they inform the rest of the world of their decisions. I would like to be more in the loop.

Anyway, I bought ‘Nancy Lindsay’ because she was said to have a purple “stem” …

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Colchicum ‘Autumn Herald’ finally made an appearance, kind of late to be a herald, but a relief to me. Only one blossom so far–perhaps it’s not thriving? Or perhaps I’m too impatient. After all, this first blossom has scarcely colored up yet. The first of the transplanted ‘Lilac Wonder’s is blooming, and doesn’t look floppy like it did in its former location, so now I’m wondering if it flopped because it didn’t get enough sun. But it’s not a leaf or a stem, so does it even have the potential to lean towards the sun? Beats me. Wait and see, Kathy, wait and see. It’s only one of ten bulbs, after all.

The first two flowers of all the bulbs …

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