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Cyclamen
Guernsey Donkey2
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Has anyone grown cyclamen from seed - saving their own seed or bought seed - how long do they take to mature?
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3 or 4 years to flower I think but I lose track of time
In the sticks near Peterborough
About three years to flowers, although some one year old seedlings nut sent me, flowered the following spring. I grow them on in pots until the corms are the size of a £2 coin.
I've done it with both bought and saved seed for both outdoor (hederifolium & coum) and indoor (persicum.) 2nd or 3rd year before flowering for any type I've found.
I need about 20 - 30 plants and buying them at the nursery is quite an expense and although the plants flower again the following year they are not so successful as in the first year. Not sure I would have the patience to wait 2 or 3 years though.
Which cyclamen are you referring to Rosie? My hederifolium and coum get better every year, though cilicium isn't so willing.
Hederifolium has made tubers the size of dinner plates now with dozens of flowers per plant
In the sticks near Peterborough
C. persicum as sold as bedding out can be had to flower in 16 months from sowing.
Hardy Cyclamen can be flowered quickly if you feed them heavily, but not sure if it does them any good to be forced like that. The Garden Centre sold ones are probably overfed like that which is why they do not always establish well.
As for sowing, well being lazy all I do is scatter that seeds (when ripe, usually in June) on a patch of gravel near the house and dig up the corms when they are a reasonable size.
If Rosie lived near, she would be welcome to come and dig up a few hundred if she wanted to.
Thanks for the invitation Berghill - you sound like my type of gardening partner! I really am referring to the cyclamen that we buy in our garden centre - some last two years, but mostly they "disappear" during the summer never to return as strong and colourful the following winter. We have a lovely display right now, but I am thinking ahead for the next winter display. Having said that we have a beautiful rose "tree" not a climber or a rambler growing up our house with about 20 beautiful yellow flowers on it right now - gorgeous for this time of year.
Those are c. persicum Rosie and are not hardy so don't often survive if left outside. The GCs sell them as annual bedding plants. One option is to leave them in pots and plant the whole pot then take them inside over the winter. The hardy cyclamen are not so showy as far as flowers go (smaller and generally only pink/purple or white) but will multiply if left to their own devices.