Add a little colour to your Autumn garden
Plant of the week for 24 August 2007
As Summer comes to an end and trees start to shed their leaves our gardens start to look a bit sorry for themselves. It needs just a few bright patches of colour to cheer things up. Colchicums are an ideal subject for this purpose.
Colchicums, commonly called 'Naked Ladies' because they do not produce their foliage until the Spring, look charming planted at the foot of a tree. Their bold flowers really stand out and last a considerable time. One of the very best is the variety speciosum Album. It has beautiful large pure white goblet shaped flowers which will remain upright even under the most adverse weather conditions. Colchicum Attlee makes an excellent companion. Lovely rosy violet flowers with a bold creamy white base extending into the petals. Perhaps the best well known of all is Colchicum Waterlily which was raised almost a hundred years ago. Its delightful flowers really look like waterlilies but it has one disadvantage which is its rather weak stem. Pannonicum is another excellent Colchicum . Its dainty blossoms are produced in great profusion.
[Photo: Colchicum Pannonicum] Buy Pannonicum
Plant your Colchicums as soon as you receive them. Cultivate your soil to a depth of 15cm (6in) and incorporate a generous dose of compost. Planting depth 10cm (4in) and a distance of 20cm (8in) apart. Colchicums produce their large shiny rich green leaves in the Spring but these should be left until they naturally die down. Leave your Colchicums undisturbed from year to year, they will readily increase, and only when the clumps become congested lift after the foliage has died down, separate the bulbs and immediately replant.
Just a word of warning. Commercial growers replant their stocks early so stocks of bulbs earmarked for sale cannot be replenished later in the season. If you do not wish to be disappointed order early.
Visit the Colchicum section of our on-line shop.
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