Cyclamen 2015

[David Nicholson]

  Hans - that is one good looking Coum

I think so too

[krisderaeymaeker]

nice flowers today :
Cyclamen coum "Porcelain"
Hans

Oh yes , great plant indeed ! 

[Hans J]

Thank you all for your compliments 

Hans

[SJW]

Some coum flowering in the greenhouse.

[SJW]

And, washing my dirty linen in public, here's what happens when you get the watering wrong and water collects on the crown. Really stupid! Particularly annoyed about the Maurice Dryden, it's one of my oldest coums and I repotted from clay into a larger plastic pot last autumn with a view to then double potting for showing in the Spring as the plant can flop a bit otherwise. I should really have been much more careful after moving the plant into plastic. I don't think I'll be overly troubling the judges...!

[johnstephen29]

Hi steve I know where your coming from I've done the same with a loverly scented Coum, just hoped I've saved it. While I'm at it come anybody give me some advice please, I recieved a delivery of cyclamen today, 6 plants in all in growth,  in plastic bags. I can't plant them till the weekend as its dark when I get home from work, what's the best way to store them till then. Thanks John

[Graeme]

Thank you all for your compliments 

Hans

another one on my wants list.........

[SJW]

Hi steve I know where your coming from I've done the same with a loverly scented Coum, just hoped I've saved it. While I'm at it come anybody give me some advice please, I recieved a delivery of cyclamen today, 6 plants in all in growth,  in plastic bags. I can't plant them till the weekend as its dark when I get home from work, what's the best way to store them till then. Thanks John

John - it would probably be ok to leave them in the bags to contain the roots but open the tops so that air can circulate. Then just put them somewhere cool and in good light indoors until the weekend.

[johnstephen29]

Thanks for the advice Steve, your a star.

[ruweiss]

Yesterday in our meadow garden - rain and snow, +2°C, but the self sown
Cyclamen coum in the grass did not mind. Rather early for my taste.

[SJW]

Lesley's posting in the "January 2015 in the Southern Hemisphere" thread about the disappearance of Trillium seed pods has prompted me to post these two photos. The first is a dark flowering hederifolium that was covered in leaves in the autumn. The second is a purpurascens. Not a pretty sight. I know that rodents are partial to cyclamen seed pods(although I've never lost any that way) but in all my years of growing cyclamen I have never seen a plant's leaves munched right back to the top dressing like this . I think it must have been mice (judging from the evidence in the traps that I subsequently set) but fairly unusual I'd have thought. It's not as though we're having a severe winter with freezing temperatures and snow cover and the rodents desperate for food - there must be plenty about for them to eat. Nothing else has been touched, just a few cyclamen in pots...

[Melvyn Jope]

Hello Steve, do you think it might be worth looking at night with a torch or remove the grit on the pot to see if anything is hiding just to ensure its not caterpiller damage?

[Matt T]

Wouldn't mice prefer to tuck into a fat, juicy tuber rather than the leaves? I'd be inclined to see if any other critter might also be lurking/visiting.

[johnw]

One autumn I moved a big Maddenia into the greenhouse and set the tub on bricks.  Unbeknownst to us a mouse moved in through the drainage hole and set up home and family.  That was until one morning when all the cyclamen leaves were eaten and some tubers thrown hither and yon.  Most of the plants survived though some took a few years to make new growing points.

Snow ankle deep here though the Annapolis Valley had a raging blizzard, already 2 ft of snow there as of 11am, more to come.  Boston seems to be getting the worst of it.

[SJW]

Melvyn, Matt - yes, I was a bit mystified and initially thought it could be slug or caterpillar damage but there is no trace of slug or snail trails on the pots and no caterpillar frass either. I've also not come across caterpillar damage quite so extensive - they don't usually help themselves to all the leaves! It's also happened to a number of pots and the common denominator is that they were all on the greenhouse floor rather than the bench (run out of room!). I'll check again tonight and also remove the top dressing just to make sure but in the end all I could conclude was that it's bl**y mice!