Double Colchicums Waterlily and Colchicum autumnal Alboplenum.

Double Colchicum's. 

Colchicum Waterlily came from Otto in 1985 one bulb, I was very excited when it came into flower last week as I thought I had left it behind in my last garden, so much joy.
It always make you think as to who was the breeder of such a large flowered Colchicum, was it an accident. So you go through all your books, as I have little information, as I have mentioned before, on Colchicums. E A Bowles to the rescue again. Full of information, Colchicum Waterlily was bred by J.J.Kerbert who was a colleague of Zocher & Co from Haarlem, a Dutch firm. J.J.Kerbert used the pollen of Colchicum autumnale Alboplenum on Colchicum speciosum Album somewhere between 1900 and 1905.
They were very successful in raising a lot of very good Zocher Colchicum seedlings. They were named and distributed by several Dutch firms. Some of the best were and you will recognise some of these names Lilac Wonder, Violet Queen, Conquest, General Grant, The Giant, Danton, Princess Astrid and Waterlily.
The director of Wisley Gardens at the time purchased all of the Zocher released hybrid Colchicums and planted them in the Azalea gardens a mass of various shades of rosy lilac to purple. I don't know if they are still there, because I have not been to Wisley in Autumn, but when you do a search on Colchicums at Wisley Gardens, there are a lot of photos of Colchicums including C. Waterlily.

Colchicum autumnale Alboplenum.