Cyclamen 2014

[ashley]

Does C. adzharicum flower very late in the UK?

John, mine from Pilous seed usually start in early to mid December and go on to about March outdoors here in southern Ireland.  They are earlier and last longer than most other coums I grow and really brighten dark winter days.

[johnw]

Thanks Ashley re: adzharicum . Perhaps a transplant into fresh soil might help mine behave normally.

I have to ask forumists this question again.  Back in the 60's when I started receiving garden magazines - I think it was weekly and called Practical Gardening from England - the coums were a very strident magenta.  In the easterrn USA they were rare but the same colour, when I first got to Kew and Wisley they were the same colour.  They really hotted up the winter gardens.  Whatever happened to that strain?  It went by various species names which escape me.  Really valuable, still I can't imagine it would combine well with any clear pink ones, white yes but surelt pink.  It must exist somewhere.  Is it seen in the wild.

johnw

[ashley]

I struggle with the pink-purple spectrum but suppose that magenta is a reasonable description of the colour.
Strident is even more subjective but to me it's bright against leaf litter without being unpleasantly so.  The flowers are quite big too.

[SJW]

SJW - Here's what I grow as C. kuznetzovii from the Cyclamen Society.  The flowers improved greatly in year 2 or 3.  The leaves as you can see are rather plain..

John - here's the plain-leaved 'kuznetsovii' I mentioned. This, and the silver-leaved one, would have come from the same packet of CS seed! The photo of C. coum 'kuznetsovii' on the CS website is of a plant with plain leaves and pale pink flowers (http://www.cyclamen.org/coum_set.html click on 'more pictures'). I don't know if 'kuznetsovii' is meant to conform to a particular 'type' but if the name just refers to plants from the Crimea then there would clearly be both leaf and flower variation in natural populations. I have a C. coum ssp caucasicum ex. Crimea with patterned leaves.

[Jacek]

I have to ask forumists this question again.  Back in the 60's when I started receiving garden magazines - I think it was weekly and called Practical Gardening from England - the coums were a very strident magenta.  In the easterrn USA they were rare but the same colour, when I first got to Kew and Wisley they were the same colour.  They really hotted up the winter gardens.  Whatever happened to that strain?  It went by various species names which escape me.  Really valuable, still I can't imagine it would combine well with any clear pink ones, white yes but surelt pink.  It must exist somewhere.  Is it seen in the wild.

johnw

John,

Elsewhere on this forum I described difficulties with growing cyclamen outside in my climate. My only coum that survived successfully and reseeds comes from cheap internet-based wholesale (and retail) supplier. The company is based in UK, but I believe the plants are grown somewhere else (in Turkey??) The big dry tubers had visible signs of growth in natural/semi natural conditions (eaten parts, holes, being bent, etc). The flowers and leaves are remarkably uniform, the flowers being of intense and relatively dark colour. This is in the sharp contrast with the pictures I can see in the forum, where pale colours dominate. Flowers of my plants also get pale when they age or weather gets warm. May be this is the clone you look for?

I have also bought a batch of coums seed-raised, potted, young yet flowering plants (so I could see their colour). The source was a big wholesale nursery based in Poland. These cyclamens were not uniform, with many of them having rather pale flowers. I have lost all of them in the winter.

Does it help? I can provide the name of the company if you wish.

[johnw]

Thanks Jacek.  It is good to know that the strident magentas were not just a selection in cultivation and that they do exist in the wild in Turkey.

I will keep trying from seed and maybe someday that colour will appear.  Importing would cost alot.

It is heartening that Ian Y. has now a hardy strain for Aberdeen.  We have a couple persistent coums but they do not like our altrernating wet and cold, especially when they sit under water with frozen ground.  I am not particularly hopeful that they will persist long term.

johnw  - 60mm of rain and heavy winds on the way late tonight and then headed across the Atlantic, a repeat on Wednesday.  When will these storms let up?  -1c

[SJW]

Thanks Jacek.  It is good to know that the strident magentas were not just a selection in cultivation and that they do exist in the wild in Turkey.

This is probably the most 'strident' colour form I have - from CSE seed. Strident in the sense that it's a deep shocking pink colour although I'm not sure if that's the shade you mean. (And the true colour is quite difficult to capture unless you're a skilled photographer, which I'm not .)

[SJW]

My most disappointing plant of the season so far - a C. coum 'Nymans Group' that's decided to stay small this year (I know the Nymans plants are meant to be relatively weak growers but...). Ist photo with normal size coum in the background, 2nd photo with the Nymans flower on the left. 

[Roma]

John, have you tried seed of Cyclamen coum 'Meaden's Crimson'.  It has plain leaves and a very dark flower?

Cyclamen elegans
Cyclamen coum has not done well when I planted it in the garden but self sown seedlings have flourished in a number of places
A single plant under a Rhododendron
Mixed clumps in gravel by a low east facing wall

[Jacek]

This is probably the most 'strident' colour form I have - from CSE seed. Strident in the sense that it's a deep shocking pink colour although I'm not sure if that's the shade you mean. (And the true colour is quite difficult to capture unless you're a skilled photographer, which I'm not .)

Steve, I think mine are similar. Just the colour is in such a contrast to any background - that's important if one wants to appreciate these tiny flowers in the garden from any distance. Leaves seem similar, too. The only difference is the number of flowers - see the picture 1. But mine are not in a pot. I'm not skilled photographer, either.

John, my coums sit deep in the sandy soil drained in summer by enormous suction of old birches roots. They are top dressed by 10-15 cm of leaves. I believe mixture of pine cones and pine needles might be even better, but in my garden proved to be inferior (not sufficient frost insulation). Altogether tubers are buried at a depth of about 20 cm. Of course, seedlings will not bury themselves that deep and one can plant that deep only big dormant tubers. I do not observe problems in freeze/thaw cycle. Do you have such conditions?

[SJW]

...my coums sit deep in the sandy soil drained in summer by enormous suction of old birches roots.

I don't need to plant so deep in my relatively mild climate (by Canadian and Polish standards!).  My most successful plantings have also been where there's competition from tree roots. In this case, hazel.

[Jacek]

Steve,

Your garden coum is just nice big plant - leafy and floriferous. Mine are never that good. Either climate or deep planting is an issue. Whatever - I am happy to have them outside. And - as I follow the method of Ian Young - the natural selection of seedlings may result in plants really adjusted to my conditions.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

The ants have been quite busy over the years... 

[SJW]

The ants have been quite busy over the years... 

Who needs the 'Reading Method, eh? The plants clearly like your conditions, Luc.

Here's a very confused C. purpurascens.

[David Nicholson]

Seed pot passed on to me by my friend Mike Quest- Cyclamen coum 'Nymans Group'