Colchicum 2012

[pehe]

The Colchicum montanum bed today. There are no signs of the ones I have under glass.

Poul

[mark smyth]

I dont want them flowering now. It's a sign autumn is coming

While weeding I must have removed the label for this plant. Is it tenorii?

[jshields]

......
While weeding I must have removed the label for this plant.....

Another argument against weeding.....

Jim

[krisderaeymaeker]

The Colchicum montanum bed today. There are no signs of the ones I have under glass.
Poul

Very good colour Poul ! Here no signs ....

[krisderaeymaeker]

I dont want them flowering now. It's a sign autumn is coming
While weeding I must have removed the label for this plant. Is it tenorii?

Could be Mark , have to check my pictures ....Here this species is not flowering for the moment ...

[krisderaeymaeker]

First Colchicum of this season here is Colchicum graecum .
Survived our bad winter outside ..(planted in a poundbasket and plunged in my peatbed)

[PeterT]

graecum was the first here too, about a month ago, outside in a clay pot in sand. No more yet...

[pehe]

Kris, nice C. graecum!

Kris and Peter, how is your experience growing C graecum outside? I have tried several times without any luck in a south facing raised bed. It didn't survived the winter. When I checked it in spring the bulb was attacked by rot. Now I grow it under glass, but there is no signs of it yet.

Colchicum bivonae Apollo is flowering now in the garden.

Poul

[krisderaeymaeker]

Kris, nice C. graecum!
Kris and Peter, how is your experience growing C graecum outside? I have tried several times without any luck in a south facing raised bed. It didn't survived the winter. When I checked it in spring the bulb was attacked by rot. Now I grow it under glass, but there is no signs of it yet.

Hello Poul , it thrives better here outside then before in a pot in the greenhouse.The first two years I keep it in a pot in the greenhouse  , but under these circumstances it never flowers with me.So I changed my plans and I planted the bulb in my usual compost in a basket (the ones we use to grow plants in the pond)This basket I plunged in my peatgarden . There it stays the whole winter and it gets frost here (no snow this winter !) until minus 15 degrees ....For 14 days the garden was very frozen here ...In the spring , the leafs stil looks very good and I noticed almost no frostdamage.
We had a very cool and wet spring and summer here. The leafs stays very long on the plant ! Until for weeks ago it was stil in full leaf ....I was thinking  that it not lost his leafs this year ....but suddenly it did .I think it get really a boost and much energy from the old leafs ?My peatbed gets sun in summer from the morning until 14.00 hours in the afternoon. (east - northeast facing)In wintertime it gets almost no sun because the sun could not rise above the houses of the neighbours ....The compost of my peatbed is composed with leafmould ,bark,composted bark, peat and bit of loam .But the bulbs are planted in a basket that is filled with my usual bulbcompost .
Best regards and much success with this bulb-season...     

[pehe]

Hello Poul , it thrives better here outside then before in a pot in the greenhouse.The first two years I keep it in a pot in the greenhouse  , but under these circumstances it never flowers with me.So I changed my plans and I planted the bulb in my usual compost in a basket (the ones we use to grow plants in the pond)This basket I plunged in my peatgarden . There it stays the whole winter and it gets frost here (no snow this winter !) until minus 15 degrees ....For 14 days the garden was very frozen here ...In the spring , the leafs stil looks very good and I noticed almost no frostdamage.
We had a very cool and wet spring and summer here. The leafs stays very long on the plant ! Until for weeks ago it was stil in full leaf ....I was thinking  that it not lost his leafs this year ....but suddenly it did .I think it get really a boost and much energy from the old leafs ?My peatbed gets sun in summer from the morning until 14.00 hours in the afternoon. (east - northeast facing)In wintertime it gets almost no sun because the sun could not rise above the houses of the neighbours ....The compost of my peatbed is composed with leafmould ,bark,composted bark, peat and bit of loam .But the bulbs are planted in a basket that is filled with my usual bulbcompost .
Best regards and much success with this bulb-season...   

Hello Kris,
Thank you for your detailed answer!
I have a peat bed very similar to the description of yours, so I think its worth trying to grow one of my Colchicum graecum there in the same way as you do. I will let you know the results.
I wish you success with your bulbs too.

Poul

[PeterT]

Poul,
Mine is in a clay pot in a raised sand plunge, open to the rain, it has been awet summer here. I think that the texture of the compost is important, it should not get waterlogged.
Here, now flowering, is Colchicum feinbruniae from Jim Archibalds stock, in the same sand plunge.

[Maggi Young]

Here, now flowering, is Colchicum feinbruniae from Jim Archibalds stock, in the same sand plunge.

Probably this one, Peter, from a collection by Bob and Rannveig?
314.250 : COLCHICUM FEINBRUNIAE Syria, near Laqlouq. Ex R.& R.Wallis 99-32. (A distinct, very attractive & floriferous, faintly tesselated, pink, medium-sized, autumn-flowering species, recently described & now introduced to cultivation. One of the first species to flower with us, usually appearing in mid-August.)

[PeterT]

yes, probably Maggie, the lable says Syria on it. I dont remember the other details offhand but if you need them and want to use the pictures for the Jim A. file I will check.

[ArnoldT]

Here's one I have as Colchicum rhodopaeum and two unknowns.

[pehe]

Flowering in my garden yesterday:

Colchicum montanum under glass  (about a month later that the ones in the open garden)
Colchicum corsicum
Colchicum pannonicum
Colchicum hybrid

Poul