Colchicum, a flower to rediscover

Colchicum, or autumn crocus, is a very cute little bulb flower that blooms from the beginning of fall up to the first frost spells.

Core Colchicum facts

Name – Colchicum autumnale
Family – Liliaceae (lily family)
Type – bulb plant

Height – 3 to 6 inches (10 to 20 cm)
Exposure – full sun
Soil – ordinary

Flowering – September to November

Easy to care for, it fancies sun or light shade.

Planting colchicum

Colchicum is a perennial bulb that is easy to plant which will flower year after year.

Plant the bulbs from July to September more or less 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 cm) deep, keeping the bulbs at equal intervals.

Colchicum is a type of plant that is perfect for ground cover.

• It’s quite smart to cluster them together. Ten or so specimens in close range will create that many colorful patches.
• Choose a well-lit area or partially shaded for the best blooming.

Although crocus and colchicum look very similar, they do belong to different families.

Caring for colchicum

Easy to care for and simple to cultivate, colchicum requires very little work and flowers abundantly in fall.

One of the great assets of colchicum is that no maintenance is needed at all, and it will blend into your garden right away.

After the blooming, wait for the leaves to have withered away completely before cutting, or even let them be on the spot for even better winter protection.

1. Watering after a very dry summer and fall can signal colchicum to start growing again.
2. Regular hoeing around the flowers will highlight them and increase enjoyment.

Diseases and parasites that impact colchicum

Colchicum is a plant that knows practically neither disease nor parasite.

The only problems that might arise are due to snails and slugs but damage is often minimal.

Learn more about colchicum

Colchicum, native to Turkey and Iran, numbers about a hundred species throughout the world. Particularly poisonous, it is also called dog-killer since its poison can be fatal to animals.

This bulbous plant is perfectly suited to edges and also is beautiful at the foot of trees that will benefit from the attention it shares.

This flower used to be very common earlier.

Usually, appearance of colchicum signals the end of summer, but such is the distraction offered by its white, blue-violet, lilac-pink or purple colors that we forget to be sad as winter approaches…

Indeed, colchicum sprouts up very fast and this often coincides with the arrival of fall.

• Read also: Advice and tips to plant your bulbs well