Early February 2007

[Diane Clement]

A selection of Cyclamen coum in my frame

Cyclamen coum

[Diane Clement]

And some hederifolium which I have selected for leaf forms, all growing together in a hopeless tangle, they'll get sorted out one day. 

Cyclamen hederifolium

[Maggi Young]

Who could resist any of them?  A member of our local SRGC Group has decided to give up her cyclamen collection because she feels she is not able to look after them as well as she would like, so she has given them to the Group to be sold for group funds and to get them to good new homes. a hard thing to do, but very sensible and I hope this generous lady will take heart in the pleasure her plants will give to lots of new owners. We have five or six big box/trays full of super plants, from larger specimens to pots of seedlings.... these will be keenly searched through, starting at tomorrow's meeting with the first mixed lot, everything from hederifolium forms to repandum, graecum, cilicium, coum .. you name it!
We are looking forward to welcoming President Ian III to talk to us tomorrow. Last year for this same  meeting we called off Ian's talk because the weather was so bad... the forecast isn't that great for tomorrow... here's hoping we get to enjoy his visit this year

[TC]

On the Cyclamen theme, here are a couple of pictures of some seedlings which I have grown from my own plant's seeds.  The Mirabile with the crimson splash on the leaf looks promising if I can keep it alive.  The other is either Coum or Cilicum - a Blackbird took a fancy to my plant labels and dispersed them round the garden.  Can anyone identify it from the leaves ?

[Tim Murphy]

Tom, the plant in your second photo is C. coum.

[Lesley Cox]

Maggi, the Edgeworthia is listed in the RHS dictionary as "hardy only in favoured districts." It grows well here (not in my garden but in Christchurch I know a couple, and that's colder than here) and according to Hillier is used in Japan (where it comes from) in the making of high class papers for currency. Probably not nowadays but a nice thought that the "filthy lucre" comes from such an attractive source. The specific name chrysantha is a synonym for papyrifera.

While looking in the RHS dictionary for this, I came across a superb generic name. So good that I feel another thread coming on.

[ian mcenery]

I bought a small Edgworthia last year as a result of seeing it flowering in a local garden near Kidderminster. This plant was about 15 ft high and covered it its cadmium yellow flowers. So far no flowers here but looks as though it has made it through our mild winter so far. These beauties are always worth a punt because they are so spectacular if they succeed your a lucky whatsit and anyway you can always imagine how they might look in years to come if you are lucky - I think that's what gardening is all about


Note: I think Ian means 15 inches not  15ft! M

No Maggi 15 ft is correct the Edgworthia is a shrub best grown against a wall in the uK

[Maggi Young]

Goodness, Ian if the Edgeworthia is fifteen feet now, after a year, what size was the "small plant" you bought? 

[ian mcenery]

No Maggi I was alluding to the one I saw at the garden where I bought mine - I did not make myself clear - a habit I'm falling into as I get older. What was that you said? Anyway it would have been a bit tricky to get into the car! 

For the record my plant is about 3 ft in height

[Maggi Young]

Oh, right, I'm with you now! It was my lack rather than yours which caused the confusion, I think, Ian. Though I have been known to be "willfully awkward"( "Thrawn", we say in Scotland!) sometimes I'm just a bit dim!