The best autumn-flowering bulbs for beginners: kick off with naked ladies

So easy to grow but otherworldly in their beauty, colchicums are the stars of the autumn gardenAutumn-flowering bulbs need a summer of sleep. They hail from Mediterranean regions - places where the summers are hot and dry, and it makes sense to siesta. But by the time autumn returns, and with it the rain, they flash back into action, with delicate flowers arising from the earth long before their leaves. If you've not tried autumn bulbs before, colchicum, commonly known as naked ladies, are a good place to start because they are otherworldly and yet very easy to grow.The large blooms of colchicum look mightily like those of an oversized crocus, but they are actually members of the lily family rather than the iris. Most produce their flowers from late summer to mid-autumn. Then, in the cool of early winter, they start to put out their large, strap-like leaves. These increase in size until May, at which point their seedheads ripen, to be released over summer. During these hotter months the leaves die back and the bulb seemingly disappears. But as the soil temperate drops, the flowers re-emerge. Continue reading...