While everything else is winding down, these little gems suddenly pop up with their beautiful flowers.

Lilac Wonder - blooming now




Tenori - blooms are almost done



NOID


Autumnale Album


Byzantium -earliest to bloom in my garden

Never had much luck with these, what is the secret?

@crawgarden Can I ask what kind of trouble that you have with them? Do you have a problem with them not returning or blooming?? Basically, the best time to plant them is when they go dormant (July-August). Plant them so that they are about 2-3" deep. Sit back and wait for them to bloom in Sept-Oct. You will see the greenish cream flower stems pop out of the ground when they are ready to bloom. Best place to plant them is in full sun or partial shade in good well drain soil. Make sure you mulch them in the summer while they are dormant because they like it cool. In the spring when you see them growing green foliage, give them some fertilizer but it is optional. I have not fertilized mine and they are still blooming and going strong.

Nice variety of Colchicum Karen! Giant and C. cilicicum are almost finished here for the year but 'Dick Trotter' is just emerging. Its the 3rd year in the garden for DT and this will be its first bloom.

RJ, I noticed among the descriptions on Brent and Becky's website that some varieties are listed as hardy to zone 5 and others to zone 4. I wonder if you tried some that weren't quite hardy enough for your zone?

Thanks Karen and Neal for the info, they did not come back. This was years ago and I got them from a local retailer. I suspect they were a variety that was not hardy to zone 4. I will try again next year.

I did not realize that some cannot make it in zone 4. Perhaps a layer of mulch will protect them from extreme winter elements?

The Waterlily variety is blooming for me right now.





Neal, I would love to see a photos of all your colchicums. I got Dick Trotter 3 years ago and they died. I guess they did not like too much shade.

Wow! Waterlily is a stunner! I've been meaning to acquire that one, gotta go on the top of my list.

Sadly I didn't get any photos of the colchicum this year, I was having camera/device issues at the time. I divided Giant last year and the 3 original bulbs yielded 28 bulbs! I put groups of them in 3 areas and they were really showy this year. I found it interesting when I divided them that all the bulbs were big, no bulblets or offsets. I'm guessing the bulbs get larger until they split into 2 mature bulbs?

I was surprised to see a bud emerging from Dick Trotter, last year it was a no show and I was convinced it was dead. I'll be sure to get a photo when it blooms.