Cyclamen 2009

[Gerdk]

Thank you Wim!

Gerd

[Guff]

Gerd, your welcome.

Isn't that a wonderful color Maggi, I hope I get a few that dark.

I was looking through past pages about coum "Lake Effect".  Ellen is in upstate New York. Her web site is Seneca Hill Perennials, she has it listed and some info about it.

[Maggi Young]

I will keep my fingers crossed that you DO get some as dark as that, Guff! The more folks growing such a pretty colour break the better, eh? I can just imagine a few of those deep purples growing in a sea of white.... or vice versa...... how beautiful a combination would THAT be? 

[WimB]

You're welcome, Gerd

[Guff]

Maggi, that would be pretty. The dark purple hederifolium were started around August 28th 2008, I was surprised to see buds forming. I figured it would be next fall before I saw a flower.

[David Shaw]

We have Cyclamen purpurascens flowering in the garden but I was very surprised to find this in flower. The leaves have been up since June and it came into flower at the beginning of this month. I can only assume that it is Cyclamen cilicium, but at the beginning of July? We also have a Cyclamen intaminatum in flower in the greenhouse.

[Sinchets]

Let's hope they are not harbingers of doom- pretty though they are!

[Martin Baxendale]

We have Cyclamen purpurascens flowering in the garden but I was very surprised to find this in flower. The leaves have been up since June and it came into flower at the beginning of this month. I can only assume that it is Cyclamen cilicium, but at the beginning of July? We also have a Cyclamen intaminatum in flower in the greenhouse.

Not cilicium, David, but hederifolium. Cilicium is another species that, like purpurascens, does not have auricles (ear-like lobes) at the bases of the petals. Hederifolium does (along with africanum, graecum, cyprium and rohflsianum). The leaves are quite rounded for hederifolium but that's not so unusual. The first hederifolium flowers will often appear in July, especially after heavy rain following a hot spell. 

[Guff]

Heres a closeup picture of one of my Purpurascens flowering indoors. I have two plants outside that have flower buds, maybe another week or two.

Does the above plant/flower have a Lily of the Valley scent?

[Martin Baxendale]

Heres a closeup picture of one of my Purpurascens flowering indoors. I have two plants outside that have flower buds, maybe another week or two.

Does the above plant/flower have a Lily of the Valley scent?

The leaves on David's cyclamen do look a bit purpurascens-ish but to me the flowers don't. They look more like hederifolium with auricles on the petal bases (though it's not totally clear on the photo). As you suggest, the scent is always the real giveaway with purpurascens. But as David says he has purpurascens flowering in the garden, I assumed he'd recognise it if this plant was that, especially by the scent. Still looks like a round-leaved hederifolium to me. Usually the earliest flowers come before the leaves but atypical plants can produce early leaves with early flowers. Of course I could be wrong, especially if the plant is lily-of-the-valley scented, in which case you're right.

[johnw]

Still looks like a round-leaved hederifolium to me.

I agree Martin. I am presently growing a batch of round-leafed hederifolium from CS seed.  Quite a surprise to me but as you say given leaf variability in hederifolium one can expect almost anything.

johnw

[Paul T]

Not realising the flower differentiation, I would have thought David's pic was of a purpurascens myself.  The leaves and habit certainly look like it.

[Guff]

David, I hope you don't mind that I resized your picture for a closer look. If so I will delete it, or Maggi can.

[Gerdk]

Not realising the flower differentiation, I would have thought David's pic was of a purpurascens myself.  The leaves and habit certainly look like it.

Like Paul, I'm for purpurascens - forms with well-marked auricles occur (Grey-Wilson).

Gerd

[Martin Baxendale]

Not realising the flower differentiation, I would have thought David's pic was of a purpurascens myself.  The leaves and habit certainly look like it.

Like Paul, I'm for purpurascens - forms with well-marked auricles occur (Grey-Wilson).

Gerd

I think we need David to get down on his hands and knees and have a quick sniff for flower scent. The enlarged pic is useful (especially given my eyesight) but it's still difficult to say for sure if it's a hederifolium or a slightly auricled purpurascens. The leaves certainly do have a purpurascens-ish look to them, and the flower does look a little more purpurascens-ish in close-up, but doesn't shout purpurascens.