Colchicums

When I was growing up, there was a game show on tv called "To Tell the Truth." The various contestants tried to trick the game show panelists into thinking they were the true zoo veterinarian or whatever weird occupation was featured that day. Sometimes I think my colchicums are trying the same trick on me. [...]

Colchicums as a whole are pretty miraculous, emerging from out of nowhere and blooming without leaves, but this particular variety (Colchicum agrippinum) takes the cake. I planted it in autumn of 2004. It didn't bloom then, and it failed to send up leaves in 2005. Not surprisingly, it didn't bloom in 2005, either. When it [...]

No, it's not the Invasion of the Subterranean Aliens. These are emerging colchicum flowers. Col-chi-what? An underused flowering bulb from the Lily family, which hold a fascination for me that I really can't explain. I never would have discovered them, had they not been growing here when we moved in. Their botanical weirdness of blooming [...]

As you may be aware, the Northeast has been getting rained on for most of October. The rainy, warmer-than-typical October coming after the unusually hot and dry summer has made for some unusual plant activity: Many of the plants that went dormant or semi-dormant in the heat came back and produced another flush of bloom. [...]

How could this happen? After explaining to Zoey in the comments of this post what colchicums were, I realized I had never shown what the foliage looks like. It's not exactly breathtaking, so I don't have many photos of it to share. I had to scan in this photo, which was taken in my very [...]

This is my first colchicum of the year. It appears the Bookish Gardener beat me, as she is displaying a whole clump to my single blossom. To my eye, they are the same plant: Colchicum byzantinum. To your eye, the colors of the two flowers are different; her image is more accurate. Also, you can't [...]

I am determined to wrap up the colchicum season in a timely manner and get my colchicum books out of the dining room, where they've been banging around near the computer for easy reference. There is only one colchicum still blooming, and that is 'Waterlily.' She is always the last, and often looks the worse [...]

This is the white form of Colchicum speciosum which, just as with the white form of byzantinum, is called 'Album.' Like the typical speciosum, the flower is taller and larger than the typical byzantinum, and not nearly as generous with its blossoms, at least this year. They're elegant and demure, above the kind of flopsy [...]

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, [...]