Cyclamen 2014

[Gerdk]

Steve,
Thank you very much for your cultivating advices!
Maybe I overwatered the plant before I kept it inside - I have to confess that I always become
somewhat careless concerning watering when the hotter season is over.
Nevertheless the species developed some (leggy) new leaves inside.

Gerd

[Menai]

Help! My sister-in-law has just given me 5 large dry rootless corms presumably of hederifolium. Bought I suspect from a bin in her local garden centre. She usually uses Hilliers but I would have hoped they would have given up this practice. 2 of them have flower buds but the others nothing. Is there any way I can rescue these or should I just bury them in the garden and pretend the wildlife got them.

Erle
Anglesey

[johnstephen29]

Hi Menai I would pot them up in good size pots and use compost with good drainage. Put them in a greenhouse or a cool frost free place and see what happens. They will either grow or they won't, the two with the buds sounds promising. I agree with you this sort of thing should be stopped, but certain countries are still allowing some species to be dug up and sent abroad.

[Oron Peri]

A hybrid; africanum x confusum dark form still  in bloom
and a carpet of C. rohlfsianum leaves

[johnstephen29]

Hi Oron I have never heard of a africanum/confusum hybrid before, does it have a name yet? It has lovely flowers. Great leaves on the rohlfsianum, by the way oron the persicum autumnale you sent me have started into growth a few weeks back and looking really good.

[Oron Peri]

Hi Oron I have never heard of a africanum/confusum hybrid before, does it have a name yet? It has lovely flowers. Great leaves on the rohlfsianum, by the way oron the persicum autumnale you sent me have started into growth a few weeks back and looking really good.

Hi John

There isn't a name for this hybrid, probably because C. confusum has been upgraded to a species level only recently or luckily it occurred only for me...?
I get often hybrids between africanum/hederifolium/ confusum as they grow next to each other and flower at the same time.

The latest hybrid is quite incredible it is probably persicum x graecum ssp. anatolicum!
It appeard  in between C. graecum anatolicum seedlings.
I haven't found any literature mentioning this possibility accept a trial done artificially.
Still I'm a bit confused about it as my graecum anatolicum flower in autumn at the same time with C. persicum var autumnale but this plant blooms as the common variety in mid winter.
There are two possibilities either it did hybridize with var persicum that occasionally blooms earlier or it  hybridized with var autumnale but behaves differently.
As you can see in the photo, it is the plant on the left which has identical leaves to the other but will have persicum flowers in about 6 weeks time.

Glad to hear you had good germination with the autumanle.

[johnstephen29]

Hi Oron it shows how closely related to each other africanum/hederifolium/confusum are to hybridized so readily, I find my plants in the repandum group do the same. Your persicum/Graceum anatolicum plant has really great leaves Oron, as you say I also get flowers out of season on my persicum plants.  Your other theory about persicum autumnale and Graecum anatolicum is another good possibility, but you would think in that case it would flower at the same time as its parents, really strange.

[SJW]

C. rohlfsianum, intaminatum and confusum flowers still hanging on (just...)

[MargaretB]

I recently bought three 'cyclamen coum silver leaf' from Eurobulbs and wasn't expecting too much as they only cost £5.50 for the three.  Two of the plants look normal, but on the third all the flowers are weird and look as though they have been ironed!  It has been in flower for two months already and is quite attractive.  Is it something to be kept and loved, or is it suffering from a disease and should be destroyed before it infects all my other cyclamen?

[SJW]

I recently bought three 'cyclamen coum silver leaf' from Eurobulbs and wasn't expecting too much as they only cost £5.50 for the three.  Two of the plants look normal, but on the third all the flowers are weird and look as though they have been ironed!  It has been in flower for two months already and is quite attractive.  Is it something to be kept and loved, or is it suffering from a disease and should be destroyed before it infects all my other cyclamen?

Margaret - yes, the flowers do look a bit odd but cyclamen can sometimes throw up abnormal flowers, just look at 'Stargazer' (pass the sick bucket)! The leaves look ok and the flowers aren't streaked so it probably (?) isn't virused. Personally, I'd hang on to it to see if 'normal' flowers appear next year although to be on the safe side you could isolate it from your other plants. If it sets seeds it would be interesting to see if the same characteristic is passed on to its offspring. Unusual for C. coum to have already been in flower for 2 months though, mine are still in bud.

[johnstephen29]

Leave stargazer alone steve or I'll take that sick bucket and put it over your head while full 

[SJW]

Leave stargazer alone steve or I'll take that sick bucket and put it over your head while full 

Yes, 'Stargazer' really is a marmite plant! I like marmite but not keen on 'Stargazer' at all .

[johnstephen29]

Other way round for me, like stargazer, hate marmite with a passion.

[Maggi Young]

Margaret, I think your plant looks pretty healthy- in so far as one can tell from a photo-  and I think those "button"  flowers are rather sweet.

(Not that anybody cares : I love Marmite and think Cyclamen 'Stargazer is awful!)

[cycnich]

Its marmite for me as well. Stargazer on toast is just wrong.