Colchicums autumn 2007

[David Nicholson]

This is Colchicum autumnale in the wild. Photographed September 15th in the wild in NE Belgium on a steep limestone meadow (see photograph of habitat).

That's a mountain for Belgium isn't it? No doubt Luc will now tell me that Belgium does have real mountains!

[Anthony Darby]

Even Essex has a higher point than Belgium (in Danbury: there's a superb pub called the Griffin n top, which was described by Walter Scott as "an old hostelry").

[Lesley Cox]

David, I'm sure you know that it was a Belgian (or maybe a Dutchman) who first tried to make a mountain out of a molehill. We in NZ have to have the real thing because we have no moles.

[Boyed]

Jindegales,

I do like colchicum leaves very much. To me they are quite nice and look beautiful in spring garden.
Here are colchicum speciosums behind the tulip 'Cairo' next to the wall. That's how they look like:

[Boyed]

Some pics of colchicums from my garden.
here are my largest and favourite colchicums: 'The Giant' and 'Bivonae'. 'The Giant' usually reaches 30 cm in height in my garden. 'Bivonae' (25-27 cm) is slightly chequered and has kind of a pointed petals. And for comparison, colchicum speciosum (the last pic). It gets up to 18-20 cm tall

[Boyed]

And another beauty, colchicum 'Jaroslavna'

[Maggi Young]

Colchicum 'Jaroslavna' is a handsome flower, Zhirair.
The large goblet flowers are so showy in the garden that I never mind about the leaves  We plant them near to trees where their leaves do not fall on other plants, then there is no problem.

[David Nicholson]

Zhirair, lovely flowers but you could so easily give me another obsession

[Boyed]

Thank you Maggy!

'Jaroslavna', indeed, has deep bright colour for colchicums and, besides, it is very floriferous and flowers for a long time.

Generally I plant my colchicums in semi-shade next to the wall (fens) and they do O.K. there and the leaves look quite nice as well in spring. But I noticed that colchicums enjoy and appriciate more sunlight and produce much more flowers if planted in sunny spot (of course not to metion rich soil)

[Boyed]

David,

Obsessions?! I do easily get obsessed with the showy plants. Sometimes I get carried away so deeply that I even see those plants in my dreams, not to mention thinking about them pereodically for the whole day.

[Paul T]

Colchicums are yet another thing I have a collection of (is there anything I don't collect???  ).  They are so cool in that you can get the large ones like Giant, all the way down to tiny little ones like C. cupanii which has flowers 1cm or so across.  And everything in between of course.  Colchicum purpursascens is one of my favourite species, although I don't recall it being posted here.  It is a lovely pink with a white stripe, medium sized flowers that hold up well to rain (something that so few Colchicums handle well) and a large bulb can produce more than 20 flowers.  'Princess Astrid' is one I've just had for a couple of years and it is beautifully tesselated and of a decent size, without being too large.  A great genus, even if the leaves can crowd out other things at times (I've had to move a hardy geranium because each year it got flopped on by the leaves and nearly killed off.).  Worth it for the flowers here in late summer/Autumn (they start from the beginning of March for us)

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Now David, Lesley and Anthony : do I spot a hint of sarcasm about our Belgian mountain ranges there  
Don't forget the Ardennes : culminating at over 750 m... and as I mentioned in another thread, not far from where I live (West Flanders) the highest top peaks at 144 m (Kluisberg !) and it's only due to global warming (some 10.000 years ago) that the last glacier on it's slopes melted away...  History doesn't mention any rising of the sea level at that time though... 

[David Nicholson]

Now David, Lesley and Anthony : do I spot a hint of sarcasm about our Belgian mountain ranges there  
Don't forget the Ardennes : culminating at over 750 m... and as I mentioned in another thread, not far from where I live (West Flanders) the highest top peaks at 144 m (Kluisberg !) and it's only due to global warming (some 10.000 years ago) that the last glacier on it's slopes melted away...  History doesn't mention any rising of the sea level at that time though... 

Us? Sarcasm? Nooooooo

[hadacekf]

Colchicum 'Waterlily' with normal and abnormal flower.

[Maggi Young]

That flower is VERY confused, Franz! We have no 'Waterlily' colchicum out yet, only 'water' waterlilies, still in flower in the pond.