I purchased various colchicum bulbs and received them a few days ago. 'The Giant' is already in bloom. The directions say to plant 3-5' deep! If they are in bloom, that would bury the whole thing, besides, in my hard clay soil, I am not going to dig 5' deep!

Do any of you grow this lovely bulb successfully?

Here are a couple that I planted years ago, but not even 3' deep. These are not 'The Giant'. I don't remember the variety.

So I suppose that may answer my question, but I have never planted ' The Giant' before. I may plant the blooming one in a large pot.

Have any of you grown any of these? These in this picture have not even been watered.

Never mind! I Googled the depth since the package instructions were not accurate. They stated 4 - 6 inches.

So maybe the instructions were off, or I did not read it right...it's possible. I will double-check and see. If so, the laugh is on me, but if not, I will have to email the bulb vendor. Whew!

The suppliers are not careful about labelling or directions !
3 -5 feet ? really ?

Caroline ~ I didn't have my glasses on. It was actually 3"-5"!

I got to admit that when first reading this I thought that it was was a typo. Being born into the metric system I get easily confused with ' and " so I could see this mistake happening to me if I was writing the text for a bulb package... or elsewhere, like as in this forum.

Anyway glad to hear that they got planted at the correct depth!

Giant is a good grower and bloomer here, stately tall blooms, but unfortunately often very floppy. Needs more sun I believe! The rain and wind we are usually having at bloom time, doesn't help either. One would think your conditions would bring out much sturdier flowers, so I hope this wont be a problem at all for you.

So far, pretty floppy. Maybe next year they will look better. My other one that I have growing in an unwatered area are looking quite well despite their neglect.

Evelyn, I grow The Giant, such a nice pop of color when the rest of the garden is winding down. They have increased nicely and I've spread them out around the garden. Those I moved to a sunnier location don't flop as badly as those in partial shade. This year I divided a clump of C. cicilicum, which usually blooms several weeks after Giant has finished. I was waiting until early fall to re-plant the bulbs and was reminded to do so by seeing Giant emerge. When I got the box of bulbs off the shelf I found they were already blooming. The site I chose is somewhat rocky, so like you, I planted them a bit shallower than is generally recommended.