garden centre Cyclamen

[mark smyth]

Does anyone know where garden centre Cyclamen come from? Is it micropropping? Seeds or?

[Maggi Young]

I think they're seed raised, Mark, though I don't  know for sure. When the nursery trade can get hederifolium to make lovely flowering plants in under a year I would think they could turn these little guys around in six months or so.

[Gerry Webster]

The production of florist's cyclamen is described in Grey-Wilson's Cyclamen (1st edn. 1997). They are grown from seed under highly controlled conditions & the process is automated - effectively industrialised. Flowering sized plants are produced in 8-9 months & the output from a large nursery can be up to 1 million plants per year. Grey-Wilson describes  micropropagation (in 1997) as "unreliable.... & expensive" & implies that it is not employed. Of course things may have changed.

[mark smyth]

Thanks Maggi and Gerry

[David Nicholson]

The production of florist's cyclamen is described in Grey-Wilson's Cyclamen (1st edn. 1997). They are grown from seed under highly controlled conditions & the process is automated - effectively industrialised. Flowering sized plants are produced in 8-9 months & the output from a large nursery can be up to 1 million plants per year. Grey-Wilson describes  micropropagation (in 1997) as "unreliable.... & expensive" & implies that it is not employed. Of course things may have changed.

.... with Holland, Germany and Italy being the "big league" players.

[Rodger Whitlock]

And just to take care of the botanical loose end, they're pure Cyclamen persicum, no hybridization involved other than back crossing large-flowered cultivars with the much smaller wild form. Native to the eastern end of the Mediterranean: Israel, Lebanon, Cyprus, inter alia.

[Carlo]

Best I've seen were at Iberflora in Spain several years ago. They were from Galicia in the northern part of the country.

[mark smyth]

The main problem with Cyclamen persicum Latino and all the other selections is over incorrect watering methods by garden centre staff and the mix they are planted in.

The Cyclamen are shipped dry to cut down on haulage costs which is £100 per Dutch trolley delivered to N Ireland. At the garden centre I worked at recently the plants were initially watered by hose from above. After that they were watered by flooding the bench they were on twice or maybe 3 times a week. This caused botrytis very quickly which killed roots, leaves and flower stems. Every morning they had to be dead headed and have leaves removed.

About six weeks ago I bought 4 Cyclamen the day they arrived at the garden centre. The planting mix was on the dry side but there were plenty of fresh white roots. Before potting these on I washed most of the original mix off two of the plants. All four were potted in to 1L pots using Ian Youngs mix of grit, sand and leaf mould. The bulbs were not buried but sit on or slightly above the new mix. They were watered in once and again only when the flower stems began to lean. From memory this has only been twice. They are in the glass house and positioned beside the open louvres.

The plants are now about three times larger than when they were bought. No leaves have been removed and only two flowers have faded but naturally.

Has anyone else experimented with these Cyclamen? What is the best planting mix?

[Lesley Cox]

I can't compare what happens here Mark with what happens in the northern hemisphere but it is true to say the Cyclamen persicums (the little, highly coloured forms that are common in garden centres and supermarkets) are badly produced in that they are potted in almost pure peat then heavily watered in the garden centres. The few I've bought have also been repotted in a much freer draining mix and only watered when the flowers show a little drooping. They perk up in no time and last for months. Those left in the garden centres and especailly the supermarkets, last a short time and die/rot quickly unless bought right away. Last week I even saw cactus plants in my local supermarket standing in aluminium trays, with 5cms water flooding the lot. They were still standing in the water yesterday.

[mark smyth]

so much the same as ours.

In Tesco today I saw their Cyclamen are guaranteed for only two weeks

On the internet, or maybe on here, I read the Dutch can grow these from seed to flowering in only 7 months

A customer at Dobbies told me her plants have survived for 4 years outside in quite dry soil under trees

[Lesley Cox]

I know a couple of people who have planted out their cyclamen after they've finished flowering and they do go on successfully from year to year. Might try it with mine this year. The 5 on my kitchen windowsill and the 1 in the bathroom have just about finished.

[Maren]

I bought six 'garden centre' cyclamens last November, the stripey variety. They whole lot cost me £5. I planted them in bowls, three to a bowl (with holes in the bottom!), sitting them in their own compost on top of a little spent pleione compost and filling the gaps with the same.

They flowered all through the winter in my pleione store, which is just a shed with a polycarbonate roof, that is kept frost free where they were sitting on a top shelf close to the light.

In late spring I put them out somewhere in a shady place under trees and promptly forgot about them. To my surprise, when I looked at them again a month ago, they were covered in healthy leaves and each bowl had about 30 flowers and more to come. They were sodden with rain, so I took them back into the store and haven't watered them yet. I lift the bowls occasionally to check the weight. That will be my guide.

I'm really pleased with the result; this is the first time I succeeded with this type of cyclamen. Now I have something pretty and colourful to look at when I slave over the task of cleaning, treating and sorting this year's pleione harvest.