| Where
the garden meets the wild
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COLCHICUM AUTUMN CROCUS Colchicaceae (Colchicum family) |
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| Return to Plants Index Bulbs Index Autumn-flowering crocus Spring-flowering crocus Tecophilaea | |
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Colchicum bivonae 'Apollo' in our garden. Photograph © Paige Woodward |
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Let's call them colchicums: "autumn crocus" is confusing. These beautiful lily cousins are not true crocuses, which are cousins of iris. And while many colchicums do bloom in autumn, others bloom in spring. Colchicums are native from Europe through Central Asia; their name comes from ancient Colchis, the land of the Golden Fleece at the eastern end of the Black Sea, now known as Georgia. Colchicums contain colchicine, a powerful alkaloid used (among other things) in gout therapy and to induce polyploidy in bulb tissue culture. How to tell a Colchicum from a true Crocus?
Spring-flowering colchicums bloom with their leaves, while autumn-flowering colchicums usually (but not always!) produce their leaves separately, in spring. The taxonomy of Colchicum and its allies is tangled and contradictory; we eagerly await the promised monograph by Karin Persson. Please order for shipping in late August-September. |
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Photographs © A.M.D. Hoog |
Colchicum
asteranthum Vassiliades & K. Persson. This rare,
diminutive species, published only in 2002, sends up 1-3 starry white
flowers in December-January, making it a
natural for the glasshouse.
The flowers are faintly honey-scented; the leaves are linear; the corms
are soboliferous, spreading by fat underground shoots. Our stock
descends from specimens collected in 2001 in the central Peloponnesus, at
the type site, by Jimmy and Karin Persson of Sweden's Göteborg Botanic
Garden. The native soil is red clay weathered from limestone. Our
photographs show the plant past perfection, near the end of its bloom.
Height of flowers rarely exceeds 10 cm (4"). Zone 7?
Corm (Fall shipping only). $21.00 |
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Photograph © Paige Woodward |
Colchicum autumnale
Linnaeus 'Alboplenum'.
The species,
native to much of western and central Europe, is common in its single,
purple-rose forms, but here is a delightful variation. Flowers that are white
and fully double last for weeks in October where
autumns are cool and clear. Like all doubles, 'Aloboplenum' is too fragile
to withstand heavy rain. We get heavy rain but we grow it anyway, enjoying
it until the first big storm. The leaves, about 2.5 x 25 cm (1" x 10"), appear in spring and
die down in midsummer; we have overplanted ours with Chinese violets to conceal
their decline. This beauty arose spontaneously in a garden several
centuries ago and has been treasured ever since. It is not to be confused
with its mass-cloned, mauve offspring 'Waterlily,' a cross with C.
speciosum 'Album'. Height 10-15
cm (4-6"). Corm (Fall shipping only). $9.00 |
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Photographs © Paige Woodward |
Colchicum
autumnale Linnaeus 'Nancy Lindsay'.
Intensely violet flowers with a heart and perianth tube of deeper violet
bloom in September-October. In our upper,
sunlit picture, the flowers have just emerged and the perianth tube is
starting to turn violet. Each segment of
the flower has a white line rising from the base, as shown in our lower
picture. Vigorous, floriferous
and lovely, this selection ~ named for Nancy Lindsay, who had a small
nursery near Hidcote Manor in England after World War II ~ is among the easiest colchicums for the autumn garden. It
is sometimes offered as C. pannonicum, a supposed species native to
Hungary, but experts say that it is a color form of the widespread C. autumnale. The flowers are smaller and more
refined than those of many autumnale clones, however. Award of
Garden Merit (Royal Horticultural Society) 1997. Height 15-20 cm (6-8"). Zone
5.
Corm (Fall shipping only). $4.50 |
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
Colchicum baytopiorum
C.D.
Brickell. One to three bright lilac-pink flowers with golden anthers bloom
in October-November. The flowers are funnel-shaped, with lobes up to 4 cm (1.5") long, and
not chequered. A trio of narrow leaves rises with or slightly after the
flowers, about 5 cm (2") long at first, stretching to 30 cm (12") as time goes on. The corm is ovoid and often
has a large "heel". This charmer is named for the Turkish
botanists Turhan Baytop, who died in 2002, and his wife, Asuman Baytop. It
is native to dense scrub in Turkey's western Antalya province. Our corms descend
from material collected by Erich Pasche at a low elevation in 1973. This
species is ideal for pot culture. If unprotected, its leaves are likely to
be damaged by frost. Height 5-8 cm (2-3"). Zone 7-8.
Corm (Fall shipping only). $12.00. |
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Photographs © Paige Woodward |
Colchicum
bivonae Guss. 'Apollo'. This stunner of garden origin,
sometimes called C. bowlesianum, is part of a series of C.
bivonae selections named for Greek gods associated with the Oracle of
Delphi. It is one of our favorites,
blooming in late August-September with huge, substantial,
goblet-shaped, scented flowers that are
chequered with intense violet-mauve around a white heart. Height 15-20 cm (6-8").
Choice.
Zone 6.
Corm (Fall shipping only). $9.00 |
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog
Photograph © Paige Woodward |
Colchicum
bivonae Guss. 'Glory of Heemstede'. Selected by the
Dutch plantsman J.J. Kerbert, this cultivar is sometimes mistakenly called
'Conquest'. It is similar to 'Apollo' in form and substance but the
color is deeper, the chequering less pronounced and with us bloom is
later, in September. Heemstede is a
town around which, for a long time, many of the best growers in the Netherlands
congregated. The situation is changing, but Heemstede remains a hub of
horticultural energy. Height 15-20 cm (6-8").
Zone 6.
Corm (Fall shipping only). $9.00 |
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Photograph © Paige Woodward |
Colchicum
cupanii
Guss. Bright lilac flowers, funnel-shaped
and 2-3 cm (1") across, bloom in November-January
above a single pair of leaves. Our plants
descend from corms collected in 1996 by Antoine Hoog in Sicily on a dry,
south-facing slope at 300-400 m. This is a
particularly vigorous clone. The species is native to the western
Mediterranean. Height in flower 8 cm (3"). Best grown in a bulb frame or glasshouse.
Zone 8 if not protected.
Corm (Fall shipping only). $15.00 |
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Photographs © Paige Woodward |
Colchicum
'Dick Trotter'. Large,
intensely violet-pink chalices with a white-star centre and golden anthers
bloom in September. In colder temperatures,
the color grows even more intense and the green-gold perianth-tube is
suffused with violet. Choice. People see this in our garden and
demand it. The mother corm was found at Brin, the last garden
of Richard Durant Trotter, a plantsman ally of E.A. Bowles. The flower form and
the huge corms of 'Dick Trotter' (the ruler at left is in 1-cm increments; 5 cm =
2") suggest that one parent is C. speciosum 'Album.' Height in bloom
15-20 cm (6-8").
Zone 6, perhaps
colder.
Corm (Fall shipping only). $6.00 |
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Photograph © Leonid Bondarenko |
Colchicum
'Jarka'. Rosy violet with a green stem, the outer
perianth segments of this "upside-down" selection are tipped with white.
This is our first season growing it, so we're short on details. We know
that it flowers in autumn and we hear that it
spread from a Czech grower to Lithuania and Latvia. If you know more,
please get in touch.
Corm (Fall shipping only). $14.00 |
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Photograph © Paige Woodward |
Colchicum kesselringii Regel.
White flowers with golden anthers and a reddish-purple stripe down each segment bloom in February-March.
There are several flowers per corm. This species is native to
Tajikistan and Afghanistan. Our corms are from seeds. They descend from material collected by
Arnis Seisums at Tovilj Dara in Tajikistan. The flowers are 8-10 cm
(3-4") tall; there is considerable variation in the width of their stripes
and the white background is sometimes tinged with pink. The leaves, 1-2 cm (0.5") wide,
elongate to 15 cm (6") at maturity.
Zone 6.
Corm (Fall shipping only). $25.00 |
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Photograph © Leonid Bondarenko |
Colchicum
luteum Baker 'Vahsh'. The species is native to
subalpine N India, Afghanistan and SW China: mainly the Tien Shan and the
Pamir Alai. It flowers with its leaves as the snow melts, in
March-July and requires perfect drainage. This cultivar was
bred by our friend Leonid Bondarenko. In
our opinion the price is justified by both rarity and beauty. Height to 15
cm (6") at maturity. Zone 5, perhaps colder.
Corm (Fall shipping only). $35.00 |
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
Colchicum
minutum K. Persson. This little pink asterisk, perhaps the
smallest Colchicum on the planet, blooms in February.
It may be quite closely related to
C. asteranthum, another rare, winter-flowering soboliferous
species that grows in red clay weathered from limestone.
C. minutum is native to S and E Turkey. Our stock descends from specimens collected
in 2000 by Jimmy and Karin
Persson in Antalya province, at about 1000 m
(3200'). Zone
6?
Corm (Fall shipping only). $22.00 |
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Photograph © Paige Woodward |
Colchicum
montanum Linnaeus. Often called Bulbocodium vernum,
this fetching little plant is currently back in Colchicum. Abundant
flowers, lilac to pink and often shading to white in the centre, bloom in March-April.
Grow this under glass or, if you're brave, in a raised bed outdoors. The
species is native from France to Greece. Our plants descend from Pyrenees
stock received from Polly Stone of Askival in Scotland. Height 7-10 cm (3-4"). Zone 6.
Corm (Fall shipping only). $10.00 |
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| Colchicum pannonicum | |
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Photographs © Paige Woodward |
Colchicum szovitsii
Fisch.
& Mey. Voluptuous, rounded white flowers
with green hearts and golden stamens bloom in February-March. Native
to Turkey, Iran and the Caucasus region, this species is named for Anton Johann Szovits
(d. 1830), who collected in Armenia and Azerbaijan. Our corms are
of Armenian ancestry, descending as seed from the white clone 'Vardaovit'. These are beautiful and substantial garden
plants. Height 5-7 cm
(2-3"). Zone 5. Corm (Fall shipping only). $15.00 |
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
Colchicum
szovitsii Fisch. & Mey. large pink forms. These are
pink seedlings selected from offspring of the famous white clones 'Vardaovit' and 'Tivi'. The
flowers vary a little in shape. They are large, a good pink (rosier than
in our photograph) and bloom in February-March.
Height 5-7 cm
(2-3"). Zone 5.
Corm (Fall shipping only). $20.00 |
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Photograph © Paige Woodward |
Colchicum
trigynum (Adams) Stearn. Grow this tiny
dancer in a pot or trough. Up to 3 flowers per corm, pure white in this
form, bloom
in February-March, gradually opening out flat
among 3 narrow, 17-cm (6") leaves. The flower segments are free, rather than joined at the bottom, and for this
reason the plant is sometimes called Merendera trigyna (Adams) Woronow.
It is native to E Turkey, Iran and the Caucasus. Our plants are from
seeds collected at the Bitschenag Pass in Nakhitschevan, Azerbaijan. Height 5-8
cm (2-3"). Zone 7-8 or glasshouse.
Corm (Fall shipping only). $12.00 |
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Photograph © |
Colchicum
trigynum (Adams) Stearn bright
pink form. Offered in 2008 for the first time, this clone was found on
the summit of a peak in the Zangezur Range in Armenia. It blooms late
because of its high-altitude origin. Other details as in the previous
item.
Corm (Fall shipping only). $16.00 |
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Photograph © A.M.D. Hoog |
Colchicum
variegatum Linnaeus. This raving beauty has pinkish flowers
strongly chequered with carmine red, and deep purple anthers. It is not to
be confused with C. agrippinum, a cross with C. autumnale that
is paler and more common. C. variegatum blooms in October-December and when fully open
the flowers are up to 10 cm (4") across! The
glaucous leaves, rising in spring, are about 15 cm x 2-3 cm (6" x
1.5") and have wavy edges. Height 10-12 cm (4-5"). Native
to rocky slopes in the Greek Islands, Rhodes and S Turkey. Our plants descend from corms collected by Eduard
J. Hanslik in 1993 in Turkey's Antalya province at 1250 m.
Dry Zone 8 or glasshouse.
Not available this season. |
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| Autumn-flowering crocus Spring-flowering crocus Tecophilaea | |
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| This page was updated May 12, 2008. | |
