Colchicum Macrophyllum

Colchicum macrophyllum is a spectacular Aegean species with large autumn flowers of pale pink to rosy purple, intricately overlaid by a diffuse chequered pattern. Dark purple anthers provide a sharp contrast inside the funnel-shaped blooms, which emerge before the foliage in September. The spring leaves are exceptionally broad and handsome, sometimes approaching the proportions of a small Veratrum, so the plant needs more room than its modest flowers suggest. Native to Crete, Rhodes and south-western Turkey, it thrives in warm, dry, sharply drained sites and is superb in a bulb frame.