How many GWers grow Colchicum?
Comments (96)
katob Z6ish, NE Pa
7 years ago
dbarron
7 years agoMine (I think this is cv 'Poseidon'...but not sure) started today. Apologize for the sunlight interference...but it was tightly closed till the sun hit it.
Related Discussions
What is the most unusual plant you grow?
Comments (20)Sorry - no photo but I think the most unusual plant in my garden is Persicaria virginiana - Virginia knotweed. Yes, it's a relative of that nasty, invasive Japanese knotweed but it's both benign and native and so far has reseeded in a most well-behaved manner. It's a lovely perennial that happily grows to a moderate size in part sun, part shade and everything in between. The foliage is variegated green and white and sports a burgundy chevron on each leaf so it packs a wallop and stands out in the perennial beds, growing to about the size of astilbe or a medium hosta. It blooms in late fall but the seed-sized flowers, while numerous, are insignificant....See MoreHow many feet should i space gallicas from each other?
Comments (9)I struggle here with bulbs (not Gallicas) so don't have the underplantings I'd like. In western Washington state this worked wonderfully. In one bed I had snowdrops followed by hyacinths under the roses and so flowering season began in early spring, not in June. Clematis scrambling through the roses would probably be good, too, if you didn't want to grow them on an obelisk for height. Anita, your roses must be on a flowering similar to mine: earliest roses starting at the end of April, warm-climate roses in May, once-blooming cold hardy old roses starting around mid-May and going on for about a month. Though no, you must get a lot of fall and early spring bloom that we don't have. My once-blooming roses like part shade, as do the Hybrid Musks. I grow my roses in heavy clay and even suckering roses that are off their rootstocks are rarely so aggressive as to become pests (give me a few more years...). Summer drought with no watering may slow them down too. My sunny garden is ugly as sin in the summer as well, and is likely to remain so until I get some flourishing trees and large shrubs going. These will cool the air and give me some shade and summer green. There's just not that much happening once it gets really hot and dry. There's lavender, of course, and it blooms in the summer, and all the aromatic plants for texture and fragrance and foliage color: rosemary, thyme, lavender cotton, teucrium. Possibilities might be late lilies, fall-blooming bulbs (crocuses, colchicums, sternbergia), Japanese anemones. And foliage plants like heucheras that look good even when not in bloom. Oh yes, cyclamen for fall and winter interest. Agapanthus. Clematis. These are plants that I know grow in mild temperate-Mediterranean gardens, as most I have here and some I had in western Washington. Hellebores. I don't know how they'd do in your climate, of course. If you're worried about plants being able to compete with the suckering roses, how about sweet violets, which are very tough as well as beautiful and fragrant? Put all the thugs together in one bed. Melissa...See MoreNW Penna (Erie area) Area GWers (Ashtabula OH?)
Comments (20)Let's see what type of interest we can drum up this year, and maybe it will happen. Based on reading the posts, with several NW PA and some NE OH folks being interested, is Meadville the best location? Seems pretty reasonable to me, but maybe something at Pymatuning to make it a wee bit closer for our Ohio folks. Audrey mentioned Goddard State Park. I'll take the lead in getting this rolling, but will probably enroll the services of many folks to get this to come together. First, I assume folks are still interested, at least some. Here are some of my thougths, and everyone else post your own or comment. We can develop this plan while folks become interested, then get things planned in a couple of months. FIRST (and maybe only) RULE - ALL PLANTS MUST BE LABELED! IF THE NAME IS NOT KNOWN THEN SOME DESCRIPTIVE INFO NEEDS TO BE GIVEN. I see no problem in not knowing what somethings called, as long as we can get some info on what it looks like or how it grows. I'm not adventerous enough to pick an un-named, non-familiar plant, and hope it's not invasive! I've done exchanges a few ways. The big thing is, there were always more plants than people could take home, and everyone went away happy. Maybe they didn't get the exact plant they wanted, but they got lots of good stuff. Couple methods I've participated in: 1 - I bring 10 plants, Jim brings 5 plants, Sally brings 15 plants, Bill brings 3 plants. We put numbers 1-33 (total plants) in a hat. I pick 10 numbers, Jim 5, Sally 15, Bill 3. Then we go in order from 1 to 33 and when a number you have coems up, you pick a plant. Extremely fair but can be time consuming and cumbersome. 2 - Say 15 people show up, numbers 1-15 go into a hat, everyone picks one. Then we go in order 1-15, and everyone picks a plan. You use the honor system that you don't take home more than you brought, so you drop out when you're done. A lot simpler, but can be inequitable. The other thing I've found is that everyone is friendly and honest, and that when folks are done picking in the organized (mostly anyway) way, there are lots of plants left for folks to claim. I mean is someone brings a couple of Hostas and chops them up, there's a lot of plants. I have no problem thinking it would be fair and that we'd have fun, but we probaly need some type of consensus. I'm not looking to write a contract! For food, we could make it luck of the draw cover dish, or have folks sign up for a dish type (desert, salad, etc.) It could be bring your own plates, or we could have a few people responsible for plates, cups, utensils, etc. If we wanted a cookout someone could be responsible for meat, and they could be re-imbursed through a collection. We would also need a collection for any cost associated with a pavillion or shelter location. Another thought is bring your own meat. We get a couple of grills going and everyone cooks their own. If it were me I'd go this way. -- Pick 1-x (number of people there) and use the homor system on the plant exchange. I'm sure they'll be plenty to go around. -- Sign up for dishes by type. That way we don't have 20 trays of brownies, and no salad. Wait that's okay, I meant 20 salads and no brownies. -- Limit meat to burgers and dogs (bring your own anything else) and get a rough head count. Someone buys the meat and buns and gets reimbursed. Or just go with dishes brought and no meat. -- Everyone brings their own place settings (napkins, utensils, plates, etc). And everyone bring your own beverage(s). -- Any excess money collected to pay for meat and/or shelter area could be donated to the park or other charity that we all reasonably agree on. Just some ideas to provoke thought. I'm also not opposed to keeping it simple and we show with plants and sack lunches, swap, and get acquainted, and seeing how things go before turning it into a shin-dig! Let's start simple (I know, way too late)- Who would be willing to travel to Meadville? Pymatuning? Goddard State Park? Any of the 3 (they're not too far from each other)? Other ideas? Others thoughts on swap methods? Food thoughts?...See MoreColchicums in zone 9?
Comments (0)Can colchicums grow and bloom successfully in zone 9? If not do I refigerate them like tulips? How many hours? Do they need to be cold when they bloom like tulips? Would it be easier to force them in fall and let them grow in winter when the temps are usually in the 20's to 30's at night? I have the same questions about old world mandrakes (Mandragora officinarum) because they look like primrose, but there is so little info about them its shocking. I did get enough info to tell me they are picky though... bummer. -Jason...See More
geoforce
7 years ago
pitimpinai
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agoKarenPA_6b
7 years agoSome more colchicums blooming.
This is the same bulb as above but with more flowers open.
Colchicum Tenori
Mislabel Colchicum - does anyone know what this maybe?
posierosie_zone7a
7 years agosocalgal_gw Zone USDA 10b Sunset 24
7 years agolast modified: 7 years ago
Lisa Adams
7 years agoLisa Adams
7 years ago
Update on Sternbergia lutea in Southern California, zone 10a
My yellow fall crocus are blooming! I'm so pleased that they have returned again in my warm climate. They are planted in bright shade, under a clematis vine.
socalgal_gw Zone USDA 10b Sunset 24
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agodbarron
7 years agoninecrow
7 years agodbarron
7 years agoKarenPA_6b
7 years agodbarron
7 years agoShocking...my sternbergias started today. I wasn't expecting them till sometime in October. I blame cool periods in August. I've had these for perhaps fiveteen years (and moves through three houses). I love them.
socalgal_gw Zone USDA 10b Sunset 24
7 years agoKarenPA_6b
7 years agoI really like all of your bright yellow blooms of Sternbergia lutea and would like to add these to my garden. Will these be hardy for my zone 6? Where do you buy these bulbs?
Here are some more blooming colchicums.Alba
Lilac Wonder - beginning to pop up
Large pink NOID
socalgal_gw Zone USDA 10b Sunset 24
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agoposierosie_zone7a
7 years agodbarron
7 years agoKarenPA_6b
7 years agodbarron
7 years agoKarenPA_6b
7 years agoThanks dbarron. I will look for these bulbs next year.
Have some new colchicums to share.Lilac Wonder
Got these from a trade 3 years ago. They have done well and multiplied.
posierosie_zone7a
7 years agosocalgal_gw Zone USDA 10b Sunset 24
7 years agokatob Z6ish, NE Pa
7 years agoKaren the sternbergia put up foliage in the fall when they bloom so that will be the problem. The leaves just can't handle the ups and downs of winter.
Your colchicum are fantastic, the color and white centers are really nice! -they're not Lilac Wonder though. LW has just a tiny white center and the petals are longer and floppier. Maybe 'The Giant'? The white center and slight checkering of the flower look like it.
I was inspired by this post to divide some more clumps and put them out in my (very small) meadow. These were planted last year.
KarenPA_6b
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agokatob Z6ish, NE Pa
7 years agoKarenPA_6b
7 years agoKarenPA_6b
7 years agoHere is the next group of colchicums to bloom, the double form.
Waterlily
White double, Colchicum autumnale Alboplenum, just starting to open. So excited about this one because the bulbs did not bloom last year. I thought they were dead. I was relieved that the foliage came this past spring.
This white single is really nice. It blooms for a long time.
katob Z6ish, NE Pa
7 years agoKarenPA_6b
7 years agoposierosie_zone7a
7 years agoUser
7 years agokatob Z6ish, NE Pa
7 years agoI transplanted these three or four days ago to expand the lawn plantings, they have only gotten better since the move even though I did no soil prep and didn't even bother watering.
Here's a picture of my first colchicum plantings, the bed is bare because this part of the yard dries out so much in the summer the weeds won't even grow :)
Here's a closeup of a lilac wonder clump. It's huge this year and I'm going to guess there are at least 30 individual flowers. The only reason it's here is that it was a stray bulb too small to plant out and I figured I'd give it a few years to plump up :)
ninecrow
6 years agodbarron
6 years agopitimpinai
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoposierosie_zone7a
6 years agoKarenPA_6b
6 years agoposierosie_zone7a
6 years agoUser
6 years agoposierosie_zone7a
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agodbarron
6 years agokatob Z6ish, NE Pa
6 years agoUser
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoposierosie_zone7a
6 years ago
posierosie_zone7a