Plant info

As those of you who follow me or the Cold Climate Gardening page on Facebook know, I gave a talk on colchicums yeseterday for the Adirondack Chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society, which meets in Ithaca--not the Adirondacks. The day before my talk, I decided to pick any fresh-looking colchicums and take them [...]

Last but not least, 'Waterlily' closes the colchicum season. As I said before, I often don't get to see this blooming at its best. We often have hard freezes by the time 'Waterlily' blooms, reducing it to a sodden brown mush. Yet Bob Brown, in a Gardens Illustrated article, says "if I had to choose [...]

Colchicum season is winding down. I only found two new varieties blooming when I went out on patrol. But plenty of the ones I've already profiled continue to send up flowers.'Spartacus' is new this year for me. Right now it has the same pastel color as C. byzantinum, but since I've never grown it before, [...]

I think we are at the peak of colchicum season. The very earliest ones are finished, the mid-season ones are in their prime, and the last are just getting going!In the very first Colchicum Patrol, I came upon Colchicum autumnale. Now her pale sister is blooming. I know I planted more than just these few. [...]

An interesting thing happened between last week's colchicum patrol and this one. Take a look at this: I don't know exactly when the color intensified, but it seemed to happen overnight. It delayed the posting of this patrol, because I went back and took new photographs of many flowers to reflect the new color. I [...]

I wasn't expecting it. I walked down the path to the swampy area we call the "pond," through a tunnel of foliage, and when I emerged on the other end: Pow!A swath of golden yellow appeared from seemingly nowhere. I didn't remember seeing this last autumn, but last summer was a lot drier. As a [...]

Here I am on week 2 of the colchicum patrol. I see I promised I would show you last week's colchicums as open flowers, but I changed my mind. I am just going to show you the newly opened ones because there just isn't time. With the exception of the white byzantinum, they have all [...]

My longtime readers know I have a "thing" for colchicums. Their botanical weirdness--blooming in fall without leaves, which show up in spring and die down in July--fascinates me, yes. But when you have as many different kinds as I do, it is just plain fun to go out on "colchicum patrol" to see what's come [...]

I decided to go one-for-two: my backyard bouquet for this week is also my Wildflower Wednesday post. Instead of picking plants from my garden, I decided to limit myself to those plants growing wild. Actually, I limited myself to the tall wildflowers. I didn't pick any lobelia or turtlehead or jewelweed.The rosy flower clusters belong [...]