Dainty wine-glass shaped blooms; Best Of The Bunch COLCHICUM.

ALSO known as 'naked ladies' and 'meadow saffron', these dainty little additions to the autumn garden produce several clusters of violet, crocus-like, wine-glasss-haped blooms with leaves not appearing until the following spring.

Although colchicums look like crocuses, they are actually members of the lily family and not a type of crocus. The bulbs usually only appear on sale in late summer and have to be planted immediately, as they start flowering within weeks.

One of the best varieties for brightening the dark ground under trees is C. speciosum 'Album'. Colchicum are known for their ability to thrive in shade and are good planted with woodlanders such as Anemone nemorosa.

They like well-drained soil with plenty of added organic matter, in sun or light shade.

Other good varieties include C. 'Waterlily', which has large double flowers, and C. autumnale 'Major', which is smaller and produces many flowers.