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Cyclamen confusion

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  • @Silver surfer I've learned a lot from your much more complete and eloquent answer. Please may I check with you ( or @Dovefromabove )re the flowers -- the coum flowers don't have that "ledge" at the base of the petals as well as being smaller than hed?
    Kindness is always the right choice.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    Hederifolium for me too.  The term means leaves that look similar to ivy.  We have it here and it self seeds very readily and, for us, starts flowering as early as late September and goes on into the new year, the difference being weather it's in sun or shade.  Most of it is in grass but some in beds.

    Nearly all the ones we inherited are small flowered and pale pink but I have been adding white, deeper pink and red in beds.  Very pretty under Japanese maples.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • wakeshine said:

    Wow what amazing photographs - thank you for sharing and information. I shall go ahead and buy the hederfoliums if I can find them .
    I love them both.
    In garden centres they often sell very cheap  multi packs of Cyclamen in the autumn...these are not completely hardy in cold areas.
    To find Cyclamen coum or  Cyclamen hederifolium will maybe be harder.
    Expect to pay much more...£4.50- £6.99 per pot.
    Hopefully when they establish, they will grow into huge corms with massive of flowers and leaves...and seed around to give you new baby Cyclamen.
    Ants spread the seed and love gravel.
    Pics below show the seed capsules.
    Perthshire. SCOTLAND .
  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494
    Fantastic photos @Silver surfer. I shall walk round my garden tomorrow and check which ones I have.
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • Silver surferSilver surfer Posts: 4,719
    edited November 2020
    Thank you @ Lizzie27.
    On a recent gardening program it was suggested that you do not mix Cyclamen coum and Cyclamen hederifolium in the same area.
    I always kept ours apart.
    This is Cyclamen coum in our old garden. In amongst deciduous shrubs..under oak trees. Planted well apart to start with it looked stupid. With time they grew larger
    Perthshire. SCOTLAND .
  • Wow these photos are beautiful. What an amazing plant. 
  • newbie77newbie77 Posts: 1,838
    @Silver surfer, thank you very much for explaining it in detail. I was so confused about these that i didnt buy thinking i will end up with wrong types. It is very useful information and easy to understand and follow for newbie like me  :)
    South West London
  • Thank you for kind comments.

    I should have said that Cyclamen hederifolium flower more in late autumn...up to Christmas
    While Cyclamen coum flower later...the mass planting in pic above were taken end of January in South Wales. In summer the leaves will vanish as the bulbs go dormant. Don't panic.
    I find they grow best in well drained soil, full of rotted leaves.

    Size of flower.  Look identical in size to me.
    Colour varies from red, deep purple to pure white.
    Leaf markings as can be seen in my earlier pics are varied and beautiful...some corms have just plain green leaves.

    They will be expensive but worth every penny in my opinion.
    Once planted they need no attention...no pruning, no dead heading, no watering.
    Just be patient as the corms get larger.   Larger corms = lots more flowers.
    Enjoy. In the middle of winter they certainly lift my spirits.
    Perthshire. SCOTLAND .
  • Cyclamen hederifolium corms can live a very long time.  My dad gave me a seedling he'd grown, for our first garden after we married in 1975.  I moved it four times, from Cambridgeshire to W.Yorks to Northumberland (twice) then back to W.Yorks - by the final move it was too big to fit in any of my pots, and had to be transported in a crate.  33 years after we had it as a seedling, it finally died.  However, some of its offspring live on in our current garden... I wouldn't be without them, not least as a happy reminder of my father.   :)
    Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    I've got some old ones two - some of the corms are the size of dinnerplates (well almost).
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
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