Fall Crocus for the Garden

Fall crocus, autumn crocus, meadow saffron, and naked boys are the common names for these beautiful flowers. The fall crocus botanical name is colchicum species, hybrids, and cultivars. The bloom time for these flowers is late summer and into fall.

You want to plant the irregular shaped colchicum bulbs in late summer as soon as they have been purchased. If you delay planting you might find that the flowers have already started blooming inside the package, this can cause some stress to the corms. You need to plant them 4 to 5 inches deep in well-drained, fertile soil in the sun or light shade. Colchicums will tolerate drought quite well throughout the summer but could rot if the soil remains too wet. If you plant them in your lawn, delay your spring mowing until the foliage from the bulbs has ripened - in rough grass you will seldom have a problem. If landscape planting under a specimen tree or shrub, you want to mass the colchicums so they will bloom after you remove your summer annuals, being careful so you do not disturb the corms when planting the annuals. Remember the foliage should fit into all your spring plans. You also want to protect the blossoms from slugs because they like to feed on them.

It is very important that your autumn crocus stand out because they produce their flowers after many of your other blooms have faded out. Drifts of color, or sweeps might sound a little expensive but if you start with only a few corms they will produce such an effect in just a few years. Even though we are not always fond of ants, these little creatures will carry and spread the seeds, so it will not take long to naturalize. You also want to provide a ground cover, such as low junipers, bishops, or European wild ginger to provide a visual backdrop for these naked flowers and some support for their delicate flower tubes.

Low ferns, such as European lady fern, or Himalayan maidenhair fern are very attractive companion plants. You can also try using a fall color scheme with fall blooming crocus and the dark-leaved species of coral bells, such as the Blackcurrant Heuchera, with Allium thunbergii 'Ozawa". The allium will also bloom in the fall, with small light purple flower umbels, a beautiful contrast in habit and form for colchicums.

Some 45 species or more fall into the genus Colchicum, but there are only a few that are cultivated in U.S. gardens. The most widely grown is the C. autumnale species, which only reaches 4 to 6 inches tall. The rather shaggy double 'Pleniflorum', pristine, white-flower single 'Album', and the double 'Alboplenum' are also worth the effort to grow. The large-flower showy colchicum (C. speciosum) will bloom in white and shades of pinkish-purple. Hybrids including the 5-inch-tall, rosy double 'Waterlily' is quite charming with low ferns; fragrant, early-blooming 'Violet Queen' is a pale reddish-purple that has a checkerboard pattern; and the 'The Giant' with white-at-the-base pale lilac flowers can reach up to 12 inches tall. All of them produce a number of blooms per bulb and will naturalize freely.

Colchicum produces deep pink, lilac-purple, white, or violet flowers in late summer and autumn when there are very few blooms left in the garden. They will contrast very well with the other colors of fall and are best if planted to grow through some sort of ground cover, such as low-growing ferns or blue leadwort. Foliage appears in the spring and they are deer-and drought-resistant.

There is one thing to remember, all parts of the fall crocus are poisonous if they are ingested. Some people will experience some skin irritation if they plant fall crocus without protection. Also when you plant them this summer in your garden the fall blooming crocus will not flower until next fall but the foliage will appear first in the spring.