Fake and real crocuses put on an autumn show
10/19/2009
By LEE REICH For The Associated Press
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This photo taken Oct. 6, 2009 shows a crocus. Autumn crocus is worth planting if for nothing more than to startle your neighbors. When they ask why your crocuses are blooming this time of year, just smile and say that perhaps spring has come early in your garden.(AP Photo/Lee Reich)
The Associated Press
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Autumn crocus is worth planting if only to startle your neighbors. When they ask why your crocuses are blooming this time of year, just smile and say that perhaps spring has come early in your garden.
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A bed of autumn crocus does more than just startle, of course; it also paints the fall landscape in soft swatches of lavender, pink or white blossoms.
Had you so desired, that paint job could have begun as far back as August. Not such a bad idea, because many flower gardens temporarily sulk in August, waiting to revive in the moist coolness of autumn.
FIRST, THE FAKE CROCUSES
Many of those late summer crocus blooms come from a bulb called colchicum, which is not really a crocus at all. Its blossoms do look like those of crocuses — crocuses on steroids. And that's the size blossom it might take to catch our eyes after a summer of flowers.
The bulbs are pricey, but don't let that you scare you away, because a dozen or so flowers unfold from each bulb over the course of a few weeks. Depending on the variety and species of autumn crocus that you plant, you could have crocus-y blossoms right through late fall.
One of the best autumn crocuses is Colchicum speciosum, a robust plant bearing large, shapely blooms of soft, rosy pink. When fully open, each flower is almost a half-foot across. How's that for a "crocus"?
Despite their look-alike flowers, colchicums do not sport the delicate, strappy leaves of true crocuses. The large leaves appear in spring for a few weeks, then start to brown as the plant goes dormant, at which point they're not a very pretty sight. Deal with this by planting the bulbs beneath some evergreen groundcover, or distant enough so that although the flowers can be appreciated in autumn, the browning leaves meld with the soil in late spring.
