Colchicum szovitsii

[JohnnyD]

Colchicum svovitsii on Google yields no info at all and I am keen to discover the best way to deal with it now it is in flower.
Any ideas please?

[mark smyth]

my plant grows outside in a raised bed

[Martinr]

Diane Clement is the 'expert' judging by the number of times her pot full wins at Loughborough.

[Maggi Young]

Diane Clement is the 'expert' judging by the number of times her pot full wins at Loughborough.

 Very true, and elsewhere in the Forum you could get hints to move to Turkey,
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3148.msg88535#msg88535

or near Geir Moen  in Norway  http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=301.msg8414#msg8414
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=1584.msg39468#msg39468
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3510.msg94294#msg94294

or Kenneth Karlsson in Sweden......
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=1120.msg27760#msg27760      

   We kept losing bulbs so we're counting on seed grown babies to flower and thrive  

[Diane Clement]

Diane Clement is the 'expert' judging by the number of times her pot full wins at Loughborough.

Don't know about that, but I'll try. As it's a snowmelt plant, it need lots of water after flowering.  Sometimes I just put it outside and sprinkle a bit of the BD's magic white powder on the pot (Potassium Sulphate) and let the rain take its course.  If you keep it under glass, then plenty of water is needed.  At some point in late spring you should notice the fat fruits which form underground will appear between the leaves, and soon after the leaves will go yellow and die back.  I then put it under glass, harvest the seed and keep it completely dry until the autumn when it is repotted.  Mine usually makes a stack of seed.  I do grow some outside, it is OK in a gritty raised bed but I think it prefers a dry summer rest.  I think you'll find it fairly easy John.  I lost quite a lot of corms that I left out in a pot last year, to mice or squirrels (I saw the teeth marks) which was interesting as I believe there is enough colchine poison in a colchicum corm to kill a small mammal.

[JohnnyD]

Thanks everybody.

 Diane, I have just the spot.
J.

[ArnoldT]

Diane:

It may be that the colchicine does not have the same toxic effect on small mammals as it would have on us.

 

[Maggi Young]

It kills dogs pretty quickly , Arnold 

[daveyp1970]

what about cats though
Maggie what happerned?

[Maggi Young]

A friend had a colchicum bulb roll down a slope when she was planting. Her dachsund ran after it, grabbed it and chomped it a little.... horrible death for the wee soul.  ghastly thing to happen.
Even put me off  feeding them to the inlaws.

[PeterT]

what about cats though
Maggie what happerned?

perhaps it would still work on cats with cheaper species Davey 

[ArnoldT]

For a detailed discussion of what happened to the wee dog.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC539229/

Not a pleasant thing.

I know I have slugs that can eat their way though Colchicum flowers and leaves ad infinitum

[Lesley Cox]

It doesn't affect slaters (woodlice) either. They chomp off my leaves to trough surface level every year. I was told no, not slaters as they only feed on decaying material. Not true. I have seen them late at night clustered round C. szovitsii chewing like mad.

[Janis Ruksans]

Colchicum svovitsii on Google yields no info at all and I am keen to discover the best way to deal with it now it is in flower.
Any ideas please?

It needs very wet condtions during blooming and some time after that. In wild very often its flowers comes out from water and it grow on very, very damp places, where springs comes out and on waterflooded riverside meadows. See attached pictures. In greenhouse could be too hot and dry. Corm crop when I grow it outside is a little risky, but allways far larger than on plants grown in greenhouse. Bring pots as soon as possible out of greenhouse an look for good watering. This is important for many spring blooming Colchicums. Les susceptible to spring draught is C. munzurense and its alles.
Janis

[Hjalmar]

Maybe you already figured it out from the answers above, but if you spell it szovitsii you will get more hits on Google.