Colchicum - features of a plant blooming with the first snow

The most mysterious flower colchicum (or colchicum) comes from the Mediterranean. Its second name means "Colchis" - an area in Western Georgia, where several varieties of this plant are found. Now the culture can be grown in all areas with a temperate climate.

Colchicum - description

The perennial herbaceous plant is referred to as the lily family. All its parts, and especially the roots - are poisonous. In the chemical composition of the stem, leaves, seeds, there are resins, alkaloids, tannins, sugars and lipids. Cesspool is actively used in folk medicine as an anesthetic for radiculitis, rheumatism, arthritis, antiemetic, diuretic and laxative. It is used as tinctures and ointments. In the garden, the flower is popular due to its unpretentiousness and decorativeness.

What does a cesspool look like?

Colchicum has numerous bare upright low stems 10-50 cm high. They are covered with large elongated-lanceolate leaves of a dark olive shade with a glossy surface that form in the spring, and by early summer fall off. The roots of the plant are oblong corms, 3-5 cm long, covered with a dark brown husk. Colchicum colchicum produces single, naked, funnel-shaped, bisexual and large flowers in height of 20-25 cm. They can have different colors - from white to violet. Bulb on the average gives 3-4 flowers.

When does the colchicum blossom?

The plant received its name for a special rhythm of development. In the spring, only leaflets grow from him, in colchicum flowering passes in the autumn from October to the first snow. The process lasts about a month. During this time, the flowers pollinate the bees, then the petals wither, and the ovaries winter under the snow. Some types of plants bloom in the spring, but they are not very common.

Species difference colchicum - in the period of the dissolution of corollas, it has no leaves. Fruits are a globular oval capsule with three nests, they appear already in the coming spring, immediately after the last snow. Seeds ripen in May-June. After their retention, the ground part of the plant dies off completely, and the bulb "falls asleep" until the end of the summer, until it again needs to discard the flower spike.

Types of co-settlers

The colchicum genus contains more than 70 species, differing between each other with periods of flowering and seeding. To many of them apply different names - crocus autumnal, meadow saffron, naked lady. They are divided into autumn and spring. Among the variety of varieties in the gardens are cultivated the most popular species:

  1. Colchicum magnificent - a large variety, reaching a size of 30 cm, leaf plates have a wavy edge. His flowers are pinkish-purple, appear in September. The variety has many garden forms - white, dark purple, mahr, gigantic.
  2. Colchicum cheerful (or bright) - in autumn during flowering the site looks like a continuous colorful spot. Its bulbs grow rapidly and create mini carpets of pale-purple corollas up to 7 cm in diameter with a magnolia-shaped rosette. A distinctive feature of the timeless bright is the ability to open formed buds in winter during a thaw. He is unpretentious and popular with flower growers.
  3. Colchic Ankara is an early spring plant. Buds along with foliage appear in him in February-March. It has three narrowed leaves with 2-4 purple-pink flowers, which in April are already disappearing.
  4. Cedarberry Byzantine - the plant has large petals, rosettes are decorated with touching stamens. Its flowers are large, with a radiant structure, tender-lilac. One bulb can release up to 20 buds. The variety is often used for cutting.

Colchicum - care and cultivation

Cultivate a cesspool is easy, growing and nursing do not cause problems. He is unpretentious, grows on any soil, intensively develops on loose, drained land, which is good for moisture and air. Colchicum feels great, both in the sun and in the penumbra. Summer plant drought tolerantly, frosts are not afraid - bulbs from the soil are not taken out for the winter. Terry and white varieties in frost should be covered with fallen leaves.

Colchicum - landing

Put in the soil colchicum in August, when planting the plant is best, because it is in a state of rest. For cultivation, bulbs are taken, placed in the ground with an interval of 20 cm between the specimens. Depth of tubers landing depends on their size and varies from 8 to 20 cm. At the same time, the soil needs to be fertilized - make 1 tbsp. l. superphosphate and a liter of ash per 1 meter square plot. In the soil before planting under the digging a bucket of humus and 5 liters of sand per 1 sq.m.

Fertilizers make it possible to form strong leaves and nourish the tubers with nutrients. Bloomberries from bulbs bloom after about 6 weeks. Immersing the tuber in the soil, it is important to make sure that his long tube looks out from under the ground - then a bud grows on it. In the following years, in spring and autumn, while the stems of culture are actively developing, the plant is fed with nitrogen compounds. Complex fertilizers in the amount of 30 grams contribute to 1 square meter of the plot.

When to transplant a colchicum?

The plant grows long and well in one place - five or six years. Then a transplant is necessary, experienced gardeners advise it to be carried out every 2-3 years. Otherwise, the bulbs grow rapidly, they become too much, the tubers in the earth will be cramped. Because of this, the flowers of the plant grow smaller or even completely disappear. Therefore, the old bulbs are better for digging up completely, dividing them into daughter and maternal bulbs (the latter are already unsuitable for germination). Young tubers are relevant for disembarkation.

When to dig out a cedar?

Colchicum is easily reproduced by daughter tubers. Both rooting and transplanting the culture is necessary in August, while the plant has a rest period. But you need to dig out the corms well in advance. For cesspool, care and cultivation are performed taking into account the time of plant development. Dig up bulbs at the very beginning of the vegetative rest. This occurs in the middle of summer after the death of the ground part, before the formation of flowers - after the leaves turn yellow and fall to the ground (mid or late July). After the separation of young tubers they are planted in the ground.

Colchicum - reproduction

Propagation colchicum can be seeds and daughter bulbs. In the first case, flowers can be obtained only after 5-7 years, the second method - more common. Colchicum - 2 main ways of reproduction:

  1. Seeds. The flower seeds ripen in the middle of summer. They are soaked for a short time in water and planted in loose, moist, fertilized soil in July. Germs will appear only next year. It is easy to care for them - thin out sprouts, water if necessary, tear weeds and cover the leaves for the winter.
  2. Tubers. In the middle of July, when it's time to plant a colchicum, the old tubers are removed and their children are detached from them. The bulbs sit at a depth of 30-35 cm, they should be carefully excavated. The tubers are cleared from the ground, the tube-shoot is not cut very short. After that, they are washed, separated, kept for half an hour in a solution of potassium permanganate. Then dry and store in dryness before disembarkation (about 2-3 days) at 24 ° C. In mid-August, the bulbs are planted in a substrate impregnated with fertilizers.

Colchicum care

Colchicum is considered an unpretentious plant, care for it needs minimal. Watering it is not required, humidification is produced at the time of flowering, if at this time in the street is the dry weather. At other times, the plant has enough natural precipitation - the culture does not like high humidity, as the bulbs begin to rot. The rest includes the removal of weeds and the cover of young specimens for the winter with dry foliage, lapnik, peat crumbs.

Colchicum is often affected by slugs and snails that eat juicy large leaves in the plant. For prevention recommend timely soil weeding, balancing irrigation. Spacing can be sprinkled with gravel, seashells, eggshells. With the appearance of pest-free pest killers, fungicides Topaz, Champion, Kuproksat will be saved. Strongly affected parts of the plant need to be cut off.