Autumn Surprise

Just when you think the garden is through providing beauty for the season, these little flowers suddenly, almost magically, appear.  A neighbor gave me some odds and ends of bulbs one fall, and I planted them.  Things came up the next spring, some bloomed.  I wasn’t sure which bulbs were what when I planted them!

Colchicum

About this time that same year, these lovely little flowers bloomed, just as they are now and every fall since.  They are Colchicum, common name, fall crocus.  They produce leaves in the spring, then the leaves die back, disappear.  The cheery blooms glow even on a dreary fall afternoon, an amazing surprise at the end of summer.