Colchicum hierosolymitanum
Jane McGary (Thu, 22 Nov 2012 10:05:08 PST)

Shmuel in Jerusalem (the place for which this bulb is named) wrote:

I have grown a colchicum under this name for about 12 years, having
originally grown it from seed purchased from Monocot (Michael
Salmon), a nursery whose stock is in part now held by Kurt Vickery.
Salmon collected the seeds in nature. I have, I think, four
clones. They have been blooming for about 6 years. Since I moved
them out of their large pot and into a raised sand bed in my bulb
house, they have done much better. Each corm produces many flowers.
They have set seed at least three years and I've raised more from
seed and sent seed to other growers. Shmuel, I will make a note to
send you seeds if it forms any this year.

It may be necessary to have more than one clone to get seed. I
hand-pollinated mine at least one year. My plants did not produce
offsets in the pot, but I suspect they may now be making offsets
since they have a better root run.

This is one of the many small Colchicum species of the eastern
Mediterranean. Although little known in gardens, they are delightful
to grow in pots, troughs, and rock gardens. They have foliage of
modest size and often their flowers are large for the size of the
corm and leaves. Most have pink flowers but a few have white ones. I
grew all of mine from seed from various collectors and am still
trying to verify some of them. I sent out corms of a few species
(especially C. boissieri, which I now also grow in the open garden)
back when I was selling bulbs. A couple of white forms of C.
szovitsii are available commercially, and they regularly set seed here.

And yes, I do have photos of it in bloom and I should put them on the
PBS wiki! I did make an attempt but did not get the photo files small
enough to upload to the wiki, so must start over.

Jane McGary
Portland, Oregon, USA