Cyclamen 2015

[Mark Griffiths]

very nice Luc!

[Graeme]

I am really disappointed - I purchased two plants from a very reputable nursery last year which are supposed to have white flowers - the leaf shapes and colours were correct but now they have flowered this year they are both pink - grrrr - they were not cheap either

[Claire Cockcroft]

A little rain and much cooler nights have coaxed autumn cyclamen into flower.  Days are still warm (above 26C), but even the colchicums have started blooming.

-- Cyclamen recovered from the late Pat Bender's garden
-- Cyclamen purpurescens, going strong all summer with no sign of slowing down
-- Cyclamen hederifolium with a chimera
-- Cyclamen hederifolium with especially long petals
-- A nice grouping of white Cyclamen hederifolium

[Rimmer de Vries]

Cyclamen hederifolium blooming now in a rockery in Michigan- these survived last winter under snow at zone 4

These all came from seed ex seed started in May 2013.

 is the streaked one a chimera like Claire's or a virus? 

[Gabriel B]

I've had many of my European cyclamens die this year. It was probably due to transplanting, overfertilization, root death, drying, warm and moist soil, and then attack by bacteria. At least the deaths of my beloved plants teaches me what not to do next time. Death happens suddenly: the first sign is slightly wilting leaves and flower petals. By that point, the tuber is already turned to mush, and nothing can be done.

The only thing to do then is pull apart the plant. This gives me a chance to see how it grows. These are the floral trunks that come off the top of the tuber. As you can see, one of them is large and swollen. I suspect this is why Grey-Wilson says that Cyclamen purpurascens has tubers with long shoulders. The shoulders he's talking about are actually floral trunks that have gotten fat and started growing roots, turning into new tubers.

Sadly, these floral trunks were already rotting. Otherwise it would be worth trying to grow them as stem cuttings.





I wonder if this growth habit is unique to C. purpurascens.

[Mark Griffiths]

hi, I'd be tempted to cut off the rot, dip the tip in sulphur and try them in a dryish sandy mix.

[johnw]

Certainly a sad sight Gabriel.  I agree with Mark and I'd also remove seed pods, maybe reduce leafage somewhat or at least keep them out of direct sunlight until they rebound.  Some of those with less of a swollen base I'd plant shallowly and horizontally, usually all leaves will die on those ones.  Here they don't require much water at all while building themselves back up, that can take a very long time in this climate in the greenhouse.

Are you certain black vine weevil is not the culprit?  They do such horrors to Cyclamen persicum at this time of year; the larvae enter the corm from the base, hollow it out and leaves slop behind and sometimes the shell of the corm.  I have had these floral trunks root & rebound on occasion.  Nematodes for weevil larvae seem to work in August if the ground can be kepot consistently moist.

We rarely if ever fertilize corms in the ground, just a top-dressing of either pine needles, bark mulch, shredded oak or beech leaves.

Good luck.

john

[Mark Griffiths]

A few from me.

The first is new, first flowering of C. cilicium Erna Frank. I'm assuming it's a slightly deeper shade as the leaves looked no different. Still, all ciliciums are pretty so I'm pleased to have this.

Over the years I've picked up a number of mystery plants - the second one is I think a robust pale pink intaminatum. The mystery is it turned up in the plunge and at the time I only had the small plain leaved ones and some tiny ones that never set seed. So where did this one come from?

The final one came to me from AGS seed as C. africanum album. No, I'd never heard of that either. But it came I think from Sheila Northway - I knew Michael many years ago and I thought Sheila would be a reliable source. Leaf wise it doesn't look particularly like africanum but having grown a number of plants over the years I do find it very variable.

[Rimmer de Vries]

Hi Mark ,
nice photo 
when do you start to water these plants?

[Mark Griffiths]

Rimmer, the C.cilicium and C. intaminatum were out in the frames so they more or less get watered by the rain.

I think the "africanum" had a little water in the greenhouse and it didn't get a proper water until I saw the growth - I then put the pot in a bowl of water.

[Gabriel B]

John: I've never heard of vine weevils before, or noticed any. I do pay attention to insects. Probably vine weevils either don't exist in Minnesota or they aren't numerous enough to be a problem. The tubers weren't hollowed out; they had white putrid mush inside, which was the remains of the starch of the tuber (like the meat of a potato). I assume if something was eating it, the starch would be gone. It looked like bacteria or fungus damage.

John and Mark: The pictures were taken about a month ago, and by the time the plants showed the symptoms of wilting, they were too far gone to save. The tubers were already turned to mush, and the floral stalks were starting to rot.

I tried to root one of the stalks, but it rotted. It wasn't coated in sulfur; but maybe the infection was already inside the stalk and sulfur wouldn't do anything. I'll try the method you recommend one of these days, perhaps with uninfected stalks. It would be nice to be able to propagate cyclamens vegetatively.

[Mark Griffiths]

I had a C. purpurascens tuber collected in 1981 - it rotted but I was able to divide it into several bits - most of which survived - other cyclem grow differently of course but purpurascens often has several rooting and growing points

[Rick R.]

Black vine weevils are here in Minnesota (they hitchhiked from Europe), as are other weevils. They damage a variety of plants, but its likely that they have never been documented infesting cyclamen here, as cyclamen are very uncommon in our northern climate.  As Gabriel says, though, symptoms of his cyclamen decline don't seem to match the weevil's modus operandi.

[Melvyn Jope]

Cyclamen hederifolium, a pot grown darker form.

[Maggi Young]

My word, those are scrumptious, Melvyn.  These darker tones are very pretty and must, if pot-grown and one presumes, grown under glass - be a good unfading colour, too.