Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, Mani the purebred border collie, filling in for the guy I live with, and here today to talk about the weather, and about colchicums. You may remember me from such posts as “The Kitchen Cricket”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
This is me in the morning, not totally ready for the endless heat.
The guy I live with said they predicted 90 degrees F (32.2C) for the first of October.
He said this is far too hot and I certainly agree.
Yesterday evening, this happened.
It wasn’t very much, but it was some. And it did cool off.
Later, on my evening walk, the sky looked like this.
You would think this would signal more rain, but no, it was just the sky, full of idle promises.
Now I’m going to talk about colchicums. They’re planted all over the garden, some in sun and some in partial shade, but most of them are planted here, among the Geranium macrorrhizum, which the guy I live with likes the smell of.
Here I am next to a lot of them.
The guy I live with didn’t feel like walking through the geraniums to take pictures, so here is ‘Beaconsfield’ photographed from afar.
Its obvious, but tesselated, companion is ‘Disraeli’.
And look at ‘Nancy Lindsay’ now.
Believe it or not, there are more colchicums.
Colchicum autumnale ‘Major’ (really C. x byzantinum but this is what it’s called in the trade).
‘Daendels’.
Colchicum haynaldii, a species from the Balkans.
‘Lysimachus’.
Colchicum bivonae ‘Apollo’ a selection from a Balkan species.
‘Herbstkugel’ (autumn globe).
‘Herbstkugel’ again.
‘Pink Goblet’.
The guy I live with says some of these are nicer than others, but he wanted to try as many as he could.
If you like these, there are two sources which sell flowering-sized corms; one is Daffodils and More, another is PHS Daffodils (but their colchicums aren’t for sale now).
So that’s our news for today. I’ll leave you with a picture of me lounging on my Private Lawn, surveying Aster oblongifolius for bees.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
Gorgeous. I am expecting an order this weekend including ‘Nancy Lindsay,’ ‘Disraeli, ‘Giant’ and others. I understand the springtime foliage is rather sizable, so I should tuck the corms in amongst other plants, as the guy you live with has done.
Yes, big green healthy-looking leaves in spring. The guy I live usually with just lets them wither on the ground, these days, instead of removing them. Like withered lily foliage you remove the leaves carefully, and only after they’ve dried.
Some people object to seeing yellowing foliage in spring, which the guy I live with says is just an odd thing to object to. After all, that’s how they look in the wild.
Since it’s been so dry here, he digs a hole, plants the corm, and then fills the hole with water a couple of times.
You want optimal conditions for the incipient “daughter corms” to grow roots as the “mother corm” flowers.
I appreciate these tips. Thanks.
You’re welcome.
The guy I live with says it’s very important for the “mother corm” to be able to form healthy “daughter corms”, and plenty of water ensures that.
After flowering and maybe pollination the “mother corm” will begin to transfer starch—sucrose, glucose, and fructose—to the “daughter corms” (so you can see why they call them “mother” and “daughter”), and by this time next year, or earlier, this year’s “mother corm” will have withered away.
You may notice a kind of “foot” on the corm of ‘Nancy Lindsay’. This is normal, and is called a hypopodium.
Some colchicum species have soboles (the corms with soboles look sort of like wishbones, and the plants can send up flowers here and there in the garden); the guy I live with has often had a difficult time figuring out how to plant these. He looks for the spot where last year’s roots emerged with a 20x lens; see the post “Fire Weather, Snow, And Books” for one species that has soboles.
That post shows a spring-flowering species. You can get corms of Colchicum bulbocodium (aka Bulbocodium vernum) from most bulb companies here. (See the post “Things Seen And Unseen” for a picture of that one.)
Your colchicums are beautiful! You received a whole lot more wet stuff than we did-i think maybe 15 drops fell. The heat has been endless but at least the mornings are nicely crisp. It seems like autumn is shaping up to what the Farmer’s Almanac has forecast as warmer and drier than usual. Sigh.
The guy I live with likes colchicums a lot. Maybe you can tell. Though some are not as impressive as others.
He also says this is a “family-friendly” blog so he’s not going to print his opinion of the way this summer is ending, or the prospects of a hot, dry autumn.
BellaSita likess Autumm Globe best an mee likess Pink Lady best Mani. All THE Colchichicumss are purrty…..youss’ live inn Colchicum Purradise! HURRAH!! Youss’ got sum rain. Iss gonna bee 90 deegreess innto Octoburr??? YIKESS! Mani you due look lovelee inn yore fotoss. Guess you will stay close to THE Swamp Kooler??? ***nose bopss*** BellaDharma an ((hugss)) BellaSita Mum
Thanks.
We did get some rain; a tenth of an inch or less. Not enough to do any good, really.
I guess it is going to be hot in October; hot and very dry.
***sighss*** Wee wish fore youss’ to get more rain Mani….
The guy I live with says at least we can smell the rain that passes us by every single day.
Mew mew mew wee think youss’ wuud rather ‘feel’ an heer tHE rain; rather than smell it Mani 😉
We had a little, this afternoon, but not enough to soak in.