Colchicum & relatives 2021

[Yann]

Merendera sobolifera, with the lack of light petals splitted. Last year it was under HPS lights in better look.

[fermi de Sousa]

Colchicum cupanii just starting the colchicum season now
cheers
fermi

[Yann]

Great to see autumn species

[pehe]

Colchicum parnassicum has started flowering a few days ago

[Maggi Young]

Colchicum parnassicum has started flowering a few days ago

  Where has this year gone? seems so early!

[fermi de Sousa]

Colchicum cupanii just starting the colchicum season now
cheers
fermi

Two months later and I think these will be the last flowers this year,
cheers
fermi

[Tristan_He]

  Where has this year gone? seems so early!

To be fair it is only July! Is this Colchicum always so early?

[pehe]

To be fair it is only July! Is this Colchicum always so early?

It could be called a summer flowering Colchicum as it always flower that early - sometimes even in June.

[ArnoldT]

Colchicum hierosolymitanum

Flowering now.

[Leena]

First picture is 'William Dykes' and second is 'Violet Queen'.

[Roma]

I bought Colchicum atropurpureum from Paul Christian a long time ago.  The flowers always looked a bit streaky though the leaves looked ok.  A few years ago I noticed some seedlings and when one flowered and looked good I disposed of the original clump of bulbs.  This one is a little bit away from the main patch which has got rather weedy lately but I can't see any flowers there yet.

Colchicum atropurpureum 

[Gail]

Colchicum 'Innocence' - such a good reliable plant.

[Redmires]

Guidance on Colchicum planting depth please!

I treated myself to 3 Colchicum cilicium corms, they arrived last week and I was surprised by how enormous they were - about the size of those hyacinth bulbs you can buy for forcing. For some reason I was expecting something much smaller. I've planted them at about 3x their depth, but now I'm wondering if that's right... I'd rather not learn the hard way that it's not, as they were quite an expensive purchase by my standards. Could someone more knowledgeable reassure or tell me how deep they ought to be? They're planted in my meadow/lawn.

[Tristan_He]

Hi Redmires, Colchicum bulbs are quite chunky aren't they? You should get some fairly large leaves in spring too - they add a bit of interest to a meadow area.

In my experience Colchicums are quite forgiving, so I don't think you need to worry. The bulbs are large and strong and generally find their own depth in the soil (if they are too deep, next years bulb will form closer to the surface and vice versa). Mine are often quite shallow but we have a very thin soil here so they probably can't physically go much deeper.

Best wishes, Tristan

[Tristan_He]

'Innocence' is making a lovely display, and the colour on the atropurpurea is fabulous. I really need to make an effort to get a few more varieties of Colchicum, they do well here and are more rewarding than the autumn flowering Crocus on the whole.