Colchicums late Autumn / early Winter 2006

[mark smyth]

With late colchicums now showing buds I thought it would be good to create a flowering now folder.

I bought some cupanii with collection numbers from Paul Christian this autumn. One was the plant with very narrow petals. This one VV.KRE.94 is white something that PC doesnt mention. Henrik liked the flowers

[Joakim B]

Nice white.
Thanks for sharing
I am new to colchicums but got hold of some now for a 1£ each on the sale so I will see next autumn how my Colchicum autumnale is.

Kind regards
Joakim

[Thomas Huber]

Another sign of our crazy winter:
Colchicum doerfleri

[Thomas Huber]

By the way - my last posting was number 1000 of the new forum!!!!

Congratulations, Thomas! Lesley, we need a cake, please, quickly!! Maggi

[mark smyth]

very nice Colchicum. My winter flowering Colchicums are now above ground with leaves and flowers well advanced. Hopefully I can take photos one day next week.

Great to see we are past 1000 posts already

[Paul T]

What disturbs me is that I've only been on here 6 days or so and I'm already up to 65 posts.  At this rate my fingers will drop off!! 

[Gerben]

Here is my first message on the new Forum. I hope I succeed.

Even here in Sweden is the winter getting to be a spring. Strange feeling to see these bulbs in flower in the darkness of December. We get a lot of attention from the media because of early spring, a sort of positive site affect.
Now some pictures of Colchicum brachyphyllum OS1033 and a with form OS1030. The third is a nice white Colchicum atticum collected by Karin and Jimmy Persson (Gothenburg)

[DaveM]

Hi Gerben, and greetings from East Lothian. I was in SW Turkey in early November and there were at least 8 species in flower then. Until recently I hadn't realised there were quite so many autumn and winter species of Colchicum. Perhaps you'd say a little more about these examples you post.
Cheers

[mark smyth]

I have an amost white cupanii that caught they eye of Henrik when he was here last month

[Kees Jan]

I'm attaching some pics of Colchicum confusum, photographed on Mt Parnassos last September. This was a large population and the plants were quite variable - some had very narrow tepals. I'm also attaching a picture of the habitat (a polje).

Kees Jan van Zwienen, Netherlands

[Paul T]

Gerben,

I love that Colchicum brachyphyllum.  It is a species I haven't come across before but I rather like it.  I can see why it is named as such given the leaf staying sheathed around the flowers like a bract.  Very nice.  I wonder if that is in Australia yet?  Definitely looks like one to keep an eye out for.  Thanks so much for the pics (you too Kees)! 

[Gerben]

Thank you Dave. You're not the only one who doesn't realise that there are about 100 Colchicum species. 50 Spring and 50 Autumn flowering. Many of them look the same but there are small differences.
The Colchicum brachyphyllum is a spring flowering species from the south of Turkey and  the middle East. The species has short leaves staying together around the small flowers as you see on the picture. They grow in wet meadows along riversides. We have five collection of this species. The first collections came to the garden in 1987 and were collected by Ole Sønderhousen. (OS1030, OS1033 and OS 1058)
The Colchicum atticum is more common. It's a white spring flowering species from the south of Bulgaria, Greece and western Turkey. Grows on dry and rocky places. Dave, I hope you are satisfied with this short lecture.

So Mark, Henrik couldn't keep his eyes in his pocket. He always finds the best plants.

Yes Paul it's a lovely species. Keep your eyes open, maybe one day....

Kees Jan, thank you for all the beautiful pictures from nature. The biotope pictures are very important for us who try the grow the plants. Bedankt!

[Thomas Huber]

Gerben, which source do you use for Colchicum ID?
The best I have is Brian Mathews "The smaller bulbs"
but it's not the best in my opinion as it has no photos 

[mark smyth]

Gerben one day a plant will go to the botanics and reminds me I have to mail two plants for the collection. Maybe I should do so after Christmas. The white cupanii, with the faintest hint of pink, is the first Colchicum on this post.

I had a sneaky visit home this afternoon. My pot of C. kesselringii are flowering but like every other year they are very small

[Gerben]

Hi Thomas,
Forgot to congratulate you, sorry.     GRATULIERE!
Here at the botanical garden we are very spoiled because Karin and Jimmy Persson are working here. Karin is a doctor in botany and specialized in the genus Tulipa and Colchicum. Her husband Jimmy, our first botanist, is specialized in Colchicum, Crocus and Fritillaria. This is the raison why we don't use Brain's book so much.

Mark, I'm looking forward to see this 'white' cupanii. It's a very nice plant.
In Gothenburg the first Iris persica and a reticulata Iris are in flower.

Ian! thank you for the nice picture of me you put in my profile.
A pleasure my friend.