About
Colchicum 'Autumn Queen' is a perennial that grows from corms, featuring substantial, fragrant flowers that emerge in early autumn. Each flower has a goblet shape, displaying rose-pink petals with a white center and distinctive purple chequerboard patterns, all arising from a white perianth tube. In spring, this plant produces narrow, semi-erect leaves, which reach approximately 20 cm in length but die back by summer.
About the genus
Colchicum are perennial plants that grow from corms, featuring typically coarse, broad, strap-like leaves. These leaves may emerge alongside or following the goblet-shaped blooms.
Growing conditions
- Sunlight
- Full sun
- Soil type
- Chalk, Loam, Sand
- Soil pH
- Acid, Alkaline, Neutral
- Soil moisture
- Moist but well-drained
- Aspect
- South-facing, West-facing
- Exposure
- Sheltered
- UK hardiness
- H5
Plant details
- Plant type
- Bulbs
- Habit
- Columnar upright, Clump forming
- Foliage
- Deciduous
- Height
- 0.1-0.5 metres
- Spread
- 0-0.1 metre
- Time to full height
- 2-5 years
- Suggested uses
- Cottage and informal garden, Wildlife gardens
- Toxicity
- TOXIC if eaten. Wear gloves and other protective equipment when handling TOXIC to pets - see the HTA guide to potentially harmful plants for further information and useful contact numbers
Care notes
- Cultivation
- Plant 10cm deep in summer or early autumn in deep, fertile, moist but well-drained soil in a sunny site. Increases well and can be naturalised in grass
- Pruning
- No pruning required; allow leaves to die down naturally
- Propagation
- Propagate by separating corms when dormant in summer
- Pest resistance
- May be susceptible to slugs
- Disease resistance
- May be susceptible to grey moulds