{"id":2805,"date":"2019-08-05T05:50:07","date_gmt":"2019-08-05T13:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=2805"},"modified":"2019-08-05T05:50:07","modified_gmt":"2019-08-05T13:50:07","slug":"naked-ladies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/naked-ladies\/","title":{"rendered":"Naked Ladies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"colchicum\"<\/a>The fall bulb catalogs are arriving day by day, their pages full of impossibly big tulips, daffodils of every description, and hyacinths whose portraits are so vibrant that you can almost smell them.\u00a0 I really should get my orders in\u2014and I will in a week or so–but for right now I need more immediate gratification.<\/p>\n

What I really want is colchicum, sometimes known by the racy nickname: \u201cnaked ladies\u201d.\u00a0 The \u201cladies\u201d are crocus-like plants that sprout in the mid-autumn from corms planted a few weeks earlier.\u00a0 That\u2019s about as close to immediate gratification as you can get without springing for something already in bloom.<\/p>\n

The ladies are naked, because the blossoms leap forth from underground stems, unadorned by even modest foliage.\u00a0 The most common garden varieties produce their long, pointed leaves in the spring, by which time many gardeners have completely forgotten about the lush fall blooms. \u00a0The leaves wither and die as summer sets in, and the plants go dormant until the autumn show.\u00a0 Mine surprise me every year.<\/p>\n

Colchicum are sometimes also known as autumn crocus, though they are not really crocuses at all, but members of their own Colchicaceae family. \u00a0To further confuse things, they bloom around the same time as true autumn crocuses, which are members of the iris family. \u00a0Beautiful in their own right, the autumn crocuses, include Crocus sativus, the source of culinary saffron. \u00a0Eating the golden stamens of crocus sativus is a unique culinary experience. \u00a0Eating any part of a colchicum would probably be a deadly one, because the plant parts contain potent toxins. \u00a0As with any wild or domesticated plant that looks as if it might be edible, it\u2019s best to check with an expert before putting it in your mouth or your stewpot.<\/p>\n

My garden is home to several of the better known colchicums, including the aptly named \u2018Waterlily\u2019. Think of a pale, rosy-purple crocus, with about four times the normal number of petals, and you will have some idea of the blossom\u2019s appearance.\u00a0 Because it is a double-flowered type, the autumn surprise effect is multiplied.\u00a0 One day you see nothing but a patch of bare earth, and the next day a fistful of frilly petals have emerged from the ground.\u00a0 \u2018Waterlily\u2019 has been commercially available for about one hundred years, and is close in appearance to another double-flowered cultivar, Colchicum autumnale \u2018Pleniflorum\u2019. \u00a0The white version of \u2018Pleniflorum\u2019 is Colchicum autumnale \u2018Alboplenum\u2019, also known as double white meadow saffron.\u00a0 The plants produce multiple blooms, each with a sumptuous four-inch head.<\/p>\n

But suppose you crave something simpler and more refined in your fall garden.\u00a0 Single flowered selections are plentiful in shades of purple, rosy-purple, pink and white.\u00a0 \u00a0Colchicum bornmuelleri opens its mauve petals wide in the sunshine to reveal its lovely white throat.\u00a0\u00a0 Colchicum \u2018Violet Queen\u2019 is an even more dramatic shade of purple.\u00a0 \u2018The Giant\u2019 is true to its name, bearing large flowers that are closer to the red end of the purple color range, as are those of \u2019Dick Trotter\u2019, a rose-purple hybrid with petals that appear checkered. \u00a0For pink flowers, try Colchicum byzantium, which sports multiple blossoms from a single corm.\u00a0 \u00a0Album\u2019 is a white, single-flowered speciosum variety that is best planted in large numbers for maximum effect. \u00a0\u2018Album\u2019 can also take some amount of shade, creating points of light in darker parts of the garden.<\/p>\n

Colchicum has been known and cultivated for millennia, and was grown by the ancient Greeks.\u00a0 The genus name comes from Colchis, an area on the Black Sea where some species originate.\u00a0 The highly poisonous alkaloid colchicine, which is derived from the plant, can also be used medicinally, and is an old treatment for gout.<\/p>\n

In the horticultural world, plants like daylilies are sometimes treated with colchicine to induce polyploidy, a condition where the treated plant\u2019s cells contain more than the normal two identical sets of chromosomes. \u00a0Polyploidy produces specimens with greater vigor and larger, showier, more brilliantly colored flowers.<\/p>\n

And that brings us back to the showy \u201cnaked ladies\u201d.\u00a0 At this time of the year you can sometimes find colchicum at local nurseries.\u00a0 It\u2019s important to plant the corms as quickly as possible after you buy or receive them.\u00a0 Left to their own devices, they will forge ahead, sprouting and blooming in the bag.\u00a0 \u00a0If this happens, go ahead and plant the corms about four inches down in well drained soil.\u00a0 They will go on about their business and produce repeat flowers next fall.\u00a0 \u00a0No matter when you see your first colchicum blooms, they will not be eaten by animals.\u00a0 Most garden varmints have a keen survival instinct, so they will avoid these pretty but poisonous little plants.<\/p>\n

If you want colchicum this fall, now is the time to place orders.\u00a0 Try McClure and Zimmerman, 335 S. High Street, Randolph, WI 53956; (800) 883-6998; www.mzbulb.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Brent and Becky\u2019s Bulbs also has a good selection, find them at 7900 Daffodil Lane, Gloucester, VA 23061, Phone 804-693-3966, www.brentandbeckysbulbs.com<\/a>. Both companies offer free catalogs.<\/p>\n

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The fall bulb catalogs are arriving day by day, their pages full of impossibly big tulips, daffodils of every description, and hyacinths whose portraits are so vibrant that you can almost smell them.\u00a0 I really should get my orders in\u2014and I will in a week or so–but for right now I need more immediate gratification. … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[253,295,254,257,256,1733,2150,590],"class_list":["post-2805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-summer","tag-autumn-crocus","tag-bulbs","tag-colchicum","tag-deer-resistant-plants","tag-fall-crocus","tag-fall-perennials","tag-meadow-saffron","tag-rock-garden-plants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2805"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2807,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2805\/revisions\/2807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}