A new (to me) source for colchcium corms

Jim McKenney jamesamckenney@verizon.net
Sat, 19 Sep 2015 14:47:54 PDT
I've been buying mail-order colchicum corms for over fifty years. These acquisitions have long been characterized by two things: if the corms are from Dutch sources, they have been huge and very well grown; if the corms are from American dealers who have bought from the Dutch, the corms are huge and well grown and, sad to say, frequently misnamed. Mrs. Wilder mentions somewhere in her writing a firm in New England which existed almost a century ago and which offered home-grown corms. I have no idea what became of this firm, it was probably a loss to the war. 
Until Jane McGary began her surplus bulb distributions, there was no source that I am aware of for vetted corms for people unwilling to jump through the hoops and import corms. 
That seems to have changed. A few weeks ago I stumbled on a domestic source of vetted corms: David Burdick in Dalton, MA. Those of you who travel in daffodil circles probably know about him - he's been in business for several years supplying a small range of choice daffodils. 
What's important here is that he grows his own stock: he has seen the plants in bloom and knows what he has. As long as he continues to grow his own stock, what you get from him should agree with the catalog description.  There are certain names in the world of garden colchicums which continue to be a source of confusion - and will probably be a source of confusion as long as these plants are grown. He's aware of some of these. 
I bought a dozen corms from him this year to check them against the stocks already on hand here. Those which have bloomed so far have checked out well. 
Jim McKenneyMontgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where I am intently focused on Esther Bartning's watercolor of colchicums which appeared in Gartenschönheit,  October, 1938. 





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