Colchicum and companions

Boyce Tankersley btankers@chicagobotanic.org
Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:00:08 PDT
Hi Jane and Jim:

Particularly striking right now are clumps of Colchicum (darker colored
flowers) inter-planted with Heuchera (maroom to silver gray foliage) and
in a second location with Sedum (with purple foliage). Both Heuchera and
Sedum gladly fill in the gap left by the Colchicum foliage. 

The white flowered cultivars really show up well as they pop up through
the Phlox subulata groundcover. The Colchicum foliage dies back early
enough to allow the Phlox to fill in before the flowers appear.

Cool (to cold) rainy weather in the Chicago region has prolonged the
flowering of many of the Colchicum. 

Snails and slugs were a problem on the earlier flowering species and
cultivars but one combination of Colchicum and blue sheeps fescue was
nice. The problem is the seedlings of the fescue don't come true (steely
gray blue color). Wish I had thought about that before I let the grass
go to seed!

Boyce Tankersley
Director of Living Plant Documentation
Chicago Botanic Garden
1000 Lake Cook Road
Glencoe, IL 60022
tel: 847-835-6841
fax: 847-835-1635
email: btankers@chicagobotanic.org


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