Val Bourne on the colchicum family emerging early

Autumn seems to have come early this year and the beech leaves are already cascading down on my car a good month earlier than usual.

The variegated pampas grass is also popping up its plumes early, normally this is an October event and one I look forward to every year for a fresh flower is a rare treat by then.

My colchicums are also early and they seem to have enjoyed the wet winter and dry summer, because they are full of flower this year. They make autumn glorious and I grow at least 20 types.

Placing them is very difficult, however, because colchicums tend to have ugly leaves that appear early in the year. This new foliage can smother spring bulbs so my colchicums are never placed near snowdrops or other early treasures. Worse still, their foliage seems to attract slugs and snails who roost rather than nibble for colchicum foliage is toxic — like the rest of the plant.

There is a chemical extracted, called colchicine, and it’s used in plant breeding to alter the chromosome count of irises and hemerocallis. It’s also used as a medicine for gout and rheumatism because the chemical breaks down uric acid crystals. The ancient Greeks and Arabs used it to cure aches and pains and, in more recent times, the seeds and corms were used to make Tinctura Colchici, one of the great plant remedies.

At one time Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire supplied most of the raw material for this medicinal potion and there is still a wild colony of Colchicum autumnale on the road between Chipping Norton and Hook Norton. It nudges up through the grass verge close to the turning for Heythrop.

On sunny mornings the low goblets open although hundreds of drivers never even notice them. Once these Naked Ladies grew all round Bath and the west country in fields grazed by cattle. Livestock was poisoned by the plant and, if it got into hay, it was very dangerous. Not surprisingly farmers had mostly eradicated their colchicums from low-lying meadows by the 1930s.

One name is Meadow saffron, but most call them Naked ladies. Those in Devon knew them as Upstarts, a wonderful description for their flowers seem to appear from nowhere. Sadly our British native, C. autumnale is probably the least glorious colchicum of all.

The white form, ‘Alba’ is known as ‘dirty bones’ in the bulb trade and it’s definitely dull and dingy. There are some glorious white colchicums though the best is C. speciosum ‘Album’, a goblet of thick white petals that’s strong enough not to swoon. C. byzantinum ‘Innocence’ is a starry white with pink edges. When fully open it will looks gloriously white though — hence the name. Most colchicums come in shades of pink and ‘Nancy Lancaster’ is always early and it’s easy. Although listed under C. autumnale, it’s much more glorious with slender dark stems topped with smallish rounded flowers that open to pink.

Gaze inside and there’s a fine white line in the middle of each petal. The bulb was thought to have been collected by Nancy Lindsay (1896-1973), daughter of Norah Lindsay who gardened at Sutton Courtenay Manor. Nancy collected with Lawrence Johnston of Hidcote and he left his French garden, Jardin Serre de la Madone, to her after his death. Some say she would have preferred Hidcote though! Nancy left a bequest to Oxford University to enable women to join plant hunting expeditions.

The leaves of Nancy Lindsay are not much of a problem, but the smallest leaves of all (in my collection) belong to C. aggripinum, a small colchicum with starry, chequered petals. This easy colchicum, thought to be a hybrid between C. variegatum and C. autumnale, is a small bulb, perfect for a sunny edge. All colchicums need to get sun for part of the day to flower well. Mine are grown on a sunny edge close to autumn-flowering plants and grasses.