PlantFiles: Spring Meadow Saffron
Bulbocodium vernum

Hardy in zone 3, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; my earliest blooming bulb.

The latest botanical thinking seems to have put this back into Colchicum and the Lilaceae has been split up into several families, one of which is the Colchicaceae.

Meadow Saffron is a bad name for the plants in this genus, since it isn't even in the same family as the saffron crocus (Crocus sativus -qv). (The dried styles of a colchicum are likely to be even more poisonous than true saffron.) I am promoting "False Crocus" as an alternative name for colchicums!

I tried these many years ago and lost them, but having seen them in April 2003 doing very well in the St Petersburg (Russia)Botanical Garden I thought I'd give them another try. The fact that they came through the winter OK doesn't surprise me, it's whether our summer is warm and dry enough for them to ripen for next year that's the problem. E.A. Bowles, in his Handbook of Crocus and Colchicum, says that in the UK they need very well drained soil and should be lifted and replanted frequently. I hope they survive, since there's nothing else quite like this in spring.