Colchicum 2011 September/October

[jshields]

You guys are really frustrating me!  The heat is still going on here in Indiana; it reached 99 F (37 C) yesterday; the record high for that date was 100 F.  There is still no sign of any Colchicum so far, and I have planted loads of them around my place over the years.

Jim

[JohnLonsdale]

I saw the first noses of some of our colchicums in the beds down the drive yesterday.  We had 11" of rain last weekend and a 'cooler' week, although we will hit 90F again tomorrow.  In the summer these colchicums are covered by species paeonies and huge clumps of Amsonias, so I have to be very timely in cutting them down to allow the colchicums to flower unfettered.  There are also some sternbergias in the total shade of the amsonias, and they flower - so it isn't the sun per se that they need, but the heat to ripen the bulbs and set flower buds.  Cutting the foliage off the amsonias a couple of months before they would die back naturally has no deleterious effect, and we do something similar to many hellebore hybrids in October/November, but this time to make blowing the leaves easier.  They don't mind in the least either.

Best,

John

[Hagen Engelmann]

Here are a few more flowers of today

ANTARES  always a fairy flower
JOCHUM HOF intensive color and fine egg-shaped size
C speciosum DOMBAI I have never found the special of this plant

[Hagen Engelmann]

Ooh were is JOCHUM HOF? Here please.

[Hagen Engelmann]

Hello Jim,
I mean you have a hot summer.
But also these summer will have an end.
And then is the time of colchicum in Indiana also.
We had a wet summer, so colchicum are much earlier.

[Hagen Engelmann]

John, You have one of the best websites I ever saw. But in colchicum, You can make a few small things better. Or do you don`t like hybrids?

[Luc Gilgemyn]

A great variety you're showing us here Hagen !  Thanks !

[LucS]

With all the splendid large-flowered cultivars you show us one would forget that there are species colchicum too with flowers in the autumn.
Colchicum hierosolymitanum from the montaneous area of Israel (and Jordan ?).

[LucS]

A few variations of Colchicum cupanii.
Colchicum cupanii var. pulverulentum and var. bertolonii from Tunesia
Colchicum cupanii var. cousturieri from Crete
C. cupanii var. bertolonii and var. cousturieri are probably both plants of the large C. cupanii ssp. cupanii complex.

[JohnLonsdale]

John, You have one of the best websites I ever saw. But in colchicum, You can make a few small things better. Or do you don`t like hybrids?

Hi Hagen, and many thanks for your kind words.  There's always lots of things I can do better!  I do like the colchicum hybrids, or at least some of them.  For example I love your Antares, and also any with really strong pink color in the petals, or with contrasting colors in the tubes.  I like ones which are really distinct and will stand out in the garden.  However, I don't know of a good source of accurately named pictures of all the cultivars.  In the past it has been fairly easy for me to get seeds and bulbs of the smaller species but it is much harder to get bulbs of the named hybrids.  Can you recommend any good suppliers - I know Janis has sold them in the past and Leonid lists a number, but that is all I have come across - but I haven't looked too hard.

All the best,

John

[David Nicholson]

Lovely Colchicums Luc.

[ArnoldT]

Jim:

After returning from vacation many of my Colchicums and pushing their noses up through the soil.

Arnold

[jshields]

Jim:

After returning from vacation many of my Colchicums and pushing their noses up through the soil.

Arnold

Hi Arnold!
Possibly because a hurricane recently blew over your place?  Did you get flooded?
Jim

[David Nicholson]

Glad to see you are OK Arnold.

[ArnoldT]

It was a bit of a journey.  We went up to Portland,Maine for a couple of days and left early to head down to the Boston area.  The hurricane came and went with some strong winds and branches (small) down all over the place.  I think the main force passed west of the area.

We boarded a ferry and spent a week on Nantucket Island.  Folks there said it barely rained and the winds we slightly above what they normally experience.

Here's a typical sunset taken from my easy chair!