Focus on the crocus
NOW is the perfect time to plant autumn-flowering bulbs, which are a powerhouse of colour and perfect for lighting up the dark days to come.
A plant that never fails to delight is autumn crocuses or Colchicum autumnale. The blooms push through the soil in late summer and autumn but its glossy green leaves do not appear until the following spring.
The queen of the autumn crocuses is Colchicum speciosum Album. The pure-white goblets, held high on cool green necks in the autumn sunlight, are a truly magnificent sight.
Colchicums prefer a rich, welldrained soil in sun or dappled shade, creating spotlights among groundcover plants whose foliage can offer support to the new blooms.
They are also a good choice for containers and look great poking through the blue grassy foliage of Festuca Elija Blue.
The crocus is widely associated with early spring but Crocus speciosus comes into flower when the summer is over, usually before late October.
Stunning
Their lilac-blue goblet-like blooms are veined in darker shades with bright orange anthers inside. After they fade the leaves emerge. Plant them in the dappled shade beneath deciduous trees and shrubs or place them by the handful in your lawn. Plant the corms deeply – about 12cm below soil level – and plant in generous clumps, just 5cm or so apart. Crocus sativus, from which saffron is obtained, is also an autumn species. Plant the bulbs in a warm, sunny spot now and when they flower, harvest the saffron strands by removing the orange-red stigmas from the centre of the flowers using tweezers. Hardy Cyclamen hederafolium followed by the later-flowering Cyclamen coum turn on the charm with delicately perfumed blooms from purest white to deepest magenta fluttering over distinctive, heart-shaped, marbled leaves. They self-seed readily, naturalising to form carpets of colour from autumn to early spring, and look stunning in great drifts round the base of a mature tree.