Hardy Cyclamen. Thomas Hood wrote a poem which neatly sums up how most of us feel about this time of the year. It starts: No sun - no moon! No morn -no noon! No dawn- no dusk! No proper time of day! The poem finishes: No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds, November! Of course we have fruits and flowers at the moment and leaves too, they are hanging on late this year, but the glorious fire of Autumn leaves collapses into a soggy mush this month and many of the flowers that are left are the brave and pathetic last ditch attempts of summer flowering plants. Cyclamen hederifolium though, is still looking good after making its first appearance as early as August. This plant used to be called Cyclamen neapolitanum but is no longer known by that name. It is a little gem with ivy shaped leaves, hence the name hederifolium which means ivy-leafed. The heart-shaped leaves differ enormously in shape and size; most of them are exquisitely marbled in grey or silver. Sometimes the leaves appear before the flowers, sometimes the flowers appear first, and sometimes they come together. The flowers have five reflex petals and they come in varying shades of pink with a deep v-shaped magenta blotch at the base. There is enormous variation in the shape and size of the flowers. Some of mine are as big as the florist s cyclamen, Cyclamen persicum which of course is not hardy. The lovely white form is equally desirable. It has the rather ungainly name of cyclamen hederifolium var. hederifolium f. albiflorum. There are two lovely new cultivars of Cyclamen hederifolium; Rose Pearls and White Pearls, but all of them are beautiful. The tubers can live for years and get absolutely huge as they age. I don t know whether the name cyclamen, which means circle in Greek, is called this because the tubers are round or because when the flowers are over the stems spiral back to the soil to drop the seeds. They are then carried off by ants who love the sticky coating. This method of spreading the seeds away from the parent plant by ants is called myrmecochory. (I thought I d mention that for those of you who, like me, collect words.) You can grow these plants under trees in a humus rich soil. They benefit from an annual treat of leaf mould. They come from the Mediterranean and they need a period of dry dormancy in summer although they should never be allowed to dry out completely. When they are starting into growth I give them good soaking and a little bone meal.
Cyclamen hederifolium Cyclamen hederifolium var.hederifolium f.albiflorum
When these little treasures eventually stop flowering we still have the pleasure of their beautiful leaves. We can also look forward to the lovely winter flowering Cyclamen coum. This lovely plant will take us from the end of December when the little pink pointed buds appear, right through the worst of the winter into March. The leaves are rounded and some are green, others are silver mottled or pure silver. The good forms of silver leaved plants come under the heading Pewter Group or Silver leaf. I have a lovely silver-leafed plant with white flowers called Maurice Dryden. Tilebarn Elizabeth is also lovely with silvery leaves and bicolour flowers. Cyclamen are difficult to propagate vegetatively and they do not come true from seed. But this does not matter because all forms of cyclamen coum are gorgeous. You can collect the seeds and grow them on but if the plants are happy they will form colonies without any help from you. If you look round the parent plant you will usually see lots of seedlings with one tiny round leaf. Cyclamen coum looks great with snowdrops and winter aconite. A splash of pink, white and yellow which makes me think of bacon and eggs. Gerrard refers to cyclamen as sowbread. It seems odd to think that these delightful plants could ever have been used to feed pigs. I love his description of the seed heads as knops and I will finish with his handy advise that: Being beaten into trochisches, or little flat cakes, it is reported to be a good amorous medicine to make one in love, if it be inwardly taken. But please don t waste these lovely plants by beating them into trochishes, you will get far more pleasure from seeing them grow in your garden. Besides the tubers are toxic. Cyclamen coum
Cyclamen coum
Cyclamen coum Cyclamen coum Liz Wells