September 6, 2012 -- autumn crocus

My garden is such a wreck. I walked over to a weedy corner to see if things were really as out-of-control as I thought they were, and they were. Sigh. But then, as if to give me hope, under a tunnel of weeds I spotted these autumn crocuses blooming.

I'm calling these lavendar flowers autumn crocuses, as most people do, but they are really colchicums (Colchicum autumnale), an entirely different species. When colchicums bloom they bloom on naked stems (their big, strappy foliage comes up later). I've combined them in this inkwell with a sprig of hypericum foliage and a few blades of an ornamental grass.