WHILE WORKING in one of our local garden centres, I
was consistenUy disappointed by the poor sales performance
of the fall blooming crocus and colchicums., These are true
treasures, worth hunting for, and yet f couldn't vive them

away,

Every sear T would purchase a
good selection of these little
beattlies only to sell the majority
of them off at half price and sill
be faced with an unsaleable quan-
uty at the end of the season.

In the hopes of generating some
inserest in these very worthwhile
plants, | offer the following glimp-
Se into their qualities and care.

Although some would call the
colchicum by the common name of
autumn or fall crocus, in fact it is
Not even a remotely related species.
The colchicum comes from the
Lifiaceae family (lilies, etc.) while
the crocus is of the /ridaceae (iris,
ete.)

LARGER FLOWER

The two plants closely resemble
Cach other while they are in bloom
With the exception that the col-
Chicum flower is generally much
larger. The foliage, which appears

In spting on both plants, ts coraily
dissimilar; the true fall crocus has
the typica! prass-like appearance of
the crocus while the colchicun's
are broad and six to EO inches ite
length.

The most common colehicum is
c. specfosum, the hybrid forms of
which will produce clusters of
four-inch flowers; ‘Albus’ a single
white, ‘Lilac Wonder’ a large,
lilac-pink with white stripes, and
‘Waterlily’, a large mauve double.

Some of the harder to find
varieties such as c. agrippinum
with its pointed reddish-purpie,
speckled flowers and ¢. autumnale
‘Roseum-Plenum’ a rose pink
double, are worth the extra effort
needed to find them.

SUNNY SITE

Pick a sunny site with average
soi] and place six to eight corms in
groupings six inches apart and
three to four inches deep. Water

during drier periods of the growing
season tnd feed with bone meal in
the fall.

You must not remove the leaves
of this plant until they hase com-
pletely died back. As the leaves
take a Jong time to iature, a

19 - Friday, August 14, 1987 - North Shore News

queror’ is a deep sky-blue and
“Glabosus’ is a) fragrant blue-
Violet.

C. kotschyanus ore. zonatus
flower filac-pink in) September’
October and ¢. pulchellus is laven-
der with a bright yellow throat.

over the

garden gate

by

fore-planting of an early annual
such as pansies will screen the un-
sightly leaves until the flowers ap-
pear, at which time the pansies are
generally past their prime.

The true autumn crocus is
available in many forms. Crocus
speciousus is very vusy to grow
and has mauve, striped flowers
appearing in October. The hybrid
‘Albus’ is pure white, while ‘Con-

Geoff Tobiasson

The honor of being the best
known and yet the least known
crocus probably falls to c. sativus.
I'm sure you have all heard of saf-
fron, well this is the plant from
which it comes. The orange,
thread-like stiginas In the centre of
the flower are collected and sold
from its native environment in
Spain. Although more difficult to
grow and sometimes short lived, it

is definitely worth trying.
POROUS SOLL

Plant the fall blooming erecus in
the same manner as you would the
spring varieties; that is to say in
sun oor fight) shade and light,
porous soil. Space the corms out
about two to three inches and
plant them at the same depth.

Group the corms in mass
displays within the flower beds or
in sweeping splashes of color in the
lawn. They can also be very attrac-
live peeking out amongst the
rocks of our North Shore slopes
and rockeries.

Another bulbous plant to con-
sider here is sternbergia lutea
whose yellow flowers also appear
in the fall and Jook remarkably
like the crocus although somewhat
larger in size.

Well, | hope | have finally
created some enthusiasm for these
plants. Even though trips to the
garden centre are few and far be-
tween at this time of the year, you
will be rewarded if you make the
effort to find them, Let’s hope the
garden centres haven't given up
trying to sell them.

NEE

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