Colchicum - Decoration Of The Autumn Garden

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Summer is short in Siberia. So the day began to shrink - the sun rolled towards winter. Before you have time to look back, the autumn rains will wash away the water color of summer and nature, with its cold chisel, will scrawl an engraving of the winter landscape.

The last flowers will fade: asters, phloxes, chrysanthemums … And only in spite of the time, surprisingly delicate pink-lilac large flowers of the plant, which is called the crocus, will bloom.

This is the Russian name for a perennial corm plant, and its botanical name, Colchicum, comes from the Greek name of Colchis, the historical region of Western Georgia, where these plants are still found in the mountains. They also grow in the Mediterranean and Western Asia. There are 65 types of them in the world. In the CIS countries (mainly in Georgia and Armenia), 12 species are found. Some have been introduced to culture.

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I'll tell you about the most beautiful of them. It is called that - magnificent colchicum (Colchicum speciosum). The development cycle of this plant is very unusual. Large unequal corms with scarious dark brown scales hibernate in the soil.

In early spring, 5-6 large wide-elliptic folded leaves grow, similar to hellebore leaves. They die off in July. For a month and a half, the bulbs are at rest. Then they take root and flowers appear in September - 6-8 for each plant. They are very large: up to 20 cm high, funnel-bell-shaped corolla up to 8 cm long and in diameter. Bloom for about a month. It happens that the first snow puffs on them, then melts, and they all bloom and blossom … And another year, and under the snow they leave in bloom. It would seem that this is a mistake of nature. Why should a plant bloom if the seeds do not have time to ripen? But the fact of the matter is that the seeds ripen the next year!

The biological features of the development of this plant also dictate the requirements for agricultural technology. The bulbs are transplanted during the dormant period - in August. They are planted at a depth of 10-15 cm with an interval of 15 cm in an open or semi-shady place. The soil needs nutritious, good moisture retention and air permeability - preferably loamy with the addition of humus or compost. For rapid root growth, abundant flowering and successful overwintering, it is necessary to dig in 1 liter can of wood ash and a tablespoon of superphosphate per 1 square meter for digging.

Colchicum is magnificent - a very frost-resistant plant, wintering in Siberia without any shelter. At first glance, it may seem strange that a plant whose homeland is the Caucasus can endure Siberian frosts. But do not forget that in the mountains, where croplands grow, winters are very harsh, and the snow lies until May.

In the spring, at the beginning of the growth of leaves, fertilizing with nitrogen fertilizers gives a good effect. This contributes to the formation of large leaves, on which the growth of new corms depends; of one, 2-3 new ones grow annually. In the axil of the leaves is a capsule with dark brown round seeds. In one place, the crocus is not grown for more than 4-5 years, since the plants become cramped, the flowers and corms become smaller.

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Colchicum is a classic decoration of rockeries and rock gardens. The look, like a magnet, is attracted to the group plantings of crocus on the lawn. Colchicum flowers are excellent not only in the garden, but also in a bouquet. In a low wide vase, together with the greens of evergreen periwinkle, or saxifrage (mossy, turfy, etc.), or legume, they will extend the summer in your room for two to three weeks.

Sometimes, you come to the garden to make the last preparations for winter … And winter has already bound the pond, threw a thin snow net over the branches of the trees, and carries the talkative summer into the maelstrom of white silence. But you look under the apple tree, and there a thin blanket of snow puffs up, and from under its folds the crocus flowers are knocking out, and like a living fontanelle rumble in the silence … And you believe that this is not forever, that winter has only primed the canvas for a new landscape. That there will be another spring, nature will dip its brushes in thawed streams, and again, for the umpteenth time, will revive it with enchanting colors …