Colchicum from seed

Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com
Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:29:32 PST
Jim, don’t forget Jim Shields: we can be the 4 Jims. 

 

Yes, 'Nancy Lindsay' is a nice one, and relatively easy to sort out thanks
to the dark flower tube. 

 

In the past we've had inconclusive discussions about what it is which
triggers bloom in colchicum. Coolness seems to be a factor: imported corms
always seem to bloom long before home-grown stock.  

 

Here in Maryland, the commonly sold single, white-flowered form said to be
Colchicum autumnale is not one of the early bloomers, but it does bloom with
Nancy Lindsay in, typically, the last week of September and spilling over
into early October, just as you reported. (I checked the dates on the
digital photos I have to confirm this.)

 

I'm pretty sure the original stock of Colchicum autumnale which I grew
decades ago (long before digital days) bloomed in late August and early
September. This form divided very prolifically and set abundant fertile
seed. The flowers were small and non-descript; the foliage was plain (no
heavy pleats or puckers), smooth, narrow and eventually about a foot or so
high. Once, in a long ago August, while hiking up the hill to get to Ludwig
II’s Neuschwanstein, I saw this plant growing in the woods. It made me
homesick.  

 

 

Jim McKenney

jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com

Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871º North, 77.09829º West, USDA zone
7

My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/

BLOG! http://mcwort.blogspot.com/

 

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Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ 

 

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