Cyclamen 2008

[Gerdk]

Most unusual variants - everything seems possible!

Gerd

[Luc Gilgemyn]

I agree Gerd ! Incredible variation ! 
Thanks for letting us taste Diane ! 

[ChrisB]

Wow, Diane, what a show.  Bet the perfume in the room knocked you all out.  Thanks for sharing....

[TC]

What magnificent graecums!  I have been trying to flower 4 plants for 10 years and have managed only one flower in this time. 

[Joakim B]

Lovely cyclamen
Must have been a nice show
Here in Portugal is the C. persicum doing fine outside but I never manage to find the seeds only the new plants. They seem to be more and more green compared with the parent for each generation. Is that always the case?
The foliage was lovely and different in shape as well as in colour so would anyone identify cyclamen without the flowers? Or the reverse identify cyclamen from the flower without the foliage?

The reason I ask is that in Sweden we have a nice mix of plants that seam to flower during most of the year. Some are flowering with the foliage and some without. I thought the ones without foliage that shows some flowers now would be coum but they are supposed to be a spring varity. Could they get one or two flowers now and save the big flowering to spring or am I just wrong.
Kind regards
Joakim

[Joakim B]

If it is possible to identify from flower here re some I would like to have identified. When looking in the Phillips&Rix bulb book I see that they have different ones but I am still not able to see what to look for for identification.

First one my mother think is one I (we) got from Ireland (thanks for that You know who You are). My mother might have planted it close by so it might not be exactly this one. As an anecdote I always think on when looking at them when my mother called wondering what I have done now for crazy things. My mother got the package with something that looked like cyclamen but there was an Iris newletter about snowdrops so my mother was not sure what was going on. Only later she saw it was an Irish newsletter and it was in snowdroptime so it was logic about all You just needed to know the background. If it is the Iris(h) it is a coum and hence "should not flower now".
Then there is a two I think is similar and I think they flowered without foliage.
Then there is one that i Think looked more spidery then the rest.
Then two that flowered with foliage and I first thought they where hederifolium but that one seems to flower without foliage.
The white ones are part of some I bought cheaply that had different names than usual.
We have got plants in several different occations and some are the big wild collected? hederifolium. Some have been given to us by friends in Hungary and others where bought in bloom in a Hungarian gardencenter. So there be many different or just a few but from different sources.
Hope I get some suggestions and also of what to look for when trying to idenify them myself.
Kind regards
Joakim

[SueG]

lovely pictures Diane - must have been wonderful there.
A couple of quick pictures of one of my cyclamen which looks repectable c mirabile
from the top and side and then hederifolium Fairy Rings - who thought of a name like that - ugg!
Sue

[Diane Clement]

Here in Portugal is the C. persicum doing fine outside but I never manage to find the seeds only the new plants. They seem to be more and more green compared with the parent for each generation. Is that always the case?
The foliage was lovely and different in shape as well as in colour so would anyone identify cyclamen without the flowers? Or the reverse identify cyclamen from the flower without the foliage?

Hi Joakim
It is often possible to identify cyclamen from flower alone, or foliage alone, or tuber alone.  But it depends on the individual.  All three are best for a confirmation.  The other very useful factor is the time of flowering and producing leaves.  So we need to know a bit more information about your plants.  Where are your pictures taken?  If they are in Sweden in the open garden, then most likely all are hederifolium or purpurascens. If any of your pictures are taken in Portugal then that adds a different factor to the identification. 

In my experience, hederifolium usually flowers first, then makes leaves, but the flowers continue, so you will find both together at the moment.  Coum starts to make leaves now, and also makes buds now but the flowers will not open until December or January at the earliest.  I sometimes find that coum buds will sit for 5-6 months before opening.  All species have variations in the order of leaf and flower produced, and there are always exceptions, these are general principles.  One of the first things to look for in flower identification is whether the flower has auricles (hederifolium, africanum and graecum have them, coum, purpurascens do not.)

This is my attempt at ID of your plants:
1.  Irish one is not a coum, but it’s not very obvious what it is until the flower unfurls a bit more and easier if we could see the leaves.
2.  flowering without foliage is a hederifolium
3. pink is probably a purpurascens?
4.  flowering with foliage is hederifolium
5. pinker is hederifolium
6.  spidery is not very obvious.  Was this picture taken recently?  it’s probably a purpurascens
7. cyclamen white is a hederifolium pure white form
8.  white buds probably a coum.  If so, it may well sit with these buds for several months until they open. Never before Christmas with me, although some people find they may open early in December (there’s always exceptions!)

[ashley]

I'd agree Diane, but suggest that Joakim's plant 1 may be purpurascens too since it seems to lack auricles.  Plant 8 is more likely to be hederifolium I think because coum should have produced leaves by now.

Thanks too for the wonderful pictures from the CS show 

[Anthony Darby]

The Cyclamen Society held its Autumn Northern show today at Birmingham Botanical Gardens. 

Northern show ...... in Birmingham!

[annew]

Quite.

[Maggi Young]

I suppose it IS north of Watford, Anthony 

[Diane Clement]

Northern show ...... in Birmingham!

The other three are at Wisley, so Birmingham is "the" northern show.  

Some of us that live north of London have pushed for a more events north of Wisley, so after a lot of hard work by certain Midlands members, now there is a Midlands group of the Cyclamen Society.  This group meet this Sunday 28 September at Norton Community Centre, Stourbridge, with lectures, plant sales and discussion followed by a trip "behind the scenes" at Ashwood nurseries.  Please pm me if you would like more information, timing, etc.

I am sure that if any further north members would care to organise an event, or show, their efforts would be appreciated.

[Maggi Young]

I hope that all forumists north of Watford will express their support to Diane and her ilk for their efforts to bring plantlife to these outlying areas.......keep up the good work , Diane!
Anyone who has been involved with any joint ventures with the RHS , e. g. in Scotland, will know it is not an easy path to tread!

[Tony Willis]

I think the fritillaria group holds its 'Northern' meeting at Loughborough which to some of us is the East Midlands.

 I may be wrong but I also think the member who reports on cyclamen growth for the north lives in Cheshire.