Cyclamen 2013

[krisderaeymaeker]

here's an oddity. Came to me as a purpurascens Riva x Bled (oddly I've been to both locations and collected a few C.purpurascens back in the 70s). It's a pewter/ silver - leaves looking rather poor at the momnet though new ones are coming through. It's white ish with a pink nose. Third year flowering like this so it's not some odd one off.

Indeed very special colour Mark . It looks like purperascens is one of the few Cyclamen with such variations in the flowers ...

[jshields]

Look what I found hiding under the bench in the greenhouse:  Cyclamen graecum f. album, from seed I got from Ulrich Urban several years ago.



Now this one is sitting on top of the bench.

Jim

[Mark Griffiths]

that;'s a nice find Jim. I found an escaped pink C. intaminatum seedling in my frame the other day.

Here are another two curiousities.

One came to me as C. africanum album. I'd never heard of a pure white form in this species. For some reason I thought the seed had come from Sheila Northway via the AGS so I didn't dismiss it immediately as a mistake. I need to remember to look at the leaves when they come out.

The other is supposed to be C. africanum x hederifolium - again, how would you distinguish this from one or other of the parents?

[Maggi Young]

We've got a plant that is from seed from one of Sandy Leven's medal-winning large C. africanum plants - we think it is an africanum x hederifolium ............... because it has survived outside for  several years 
I'll see if I can get a photo tomorrow.

[Mark Griffiths]

Maggi, I'm familiar with the "if it dies outside then it's africanum" test. Not so keen on trying that method though!

[jshields]

Maggi, I'm familiar with the "if it dies outside then it's africanum" test. Not so keen on trying that method though!

I have a sort of "if it survives the summer in the greenhouse, it's africanum" test!  Over the years, only graecum and africanum have consistently survived the summers in an otherwise-empty, dry, and often 125 F greenhouse.

I now have shelves in my basement for Cyclamen and for Nerine sarniensis hybrids in summer.

Jim

[johnw]

  I now have shelves in my basement for Cyclamen and for Nerine sarniensis hybrids in summer.  Jim

Jim  - We have similar storage shelves in the cool garage.  There has been some discussion whether or not the nerines would be best kept dormant in sun, along with an ocassional watering.  Thoughts?

The best we've ever done with Cyclamen was when we grew them in clay pots and sunk them in damp sand the summer long.  The roots were fantastic as was the bud set and earlier onset of flowering.  As you say graecum & africanum were the two that we didn't need or want the plunge.  As the pots got bigger so did the depth of the plunge and we felt disaster was imminent - collapsing bench.....so we took the lazy way out.

johnw   

[jshields]

All this with Cyclamen and N. sarniensis was originally done maybe 10 years ago.  I tried leaving all my Cyclamen and the sarniensis in the greenhouse through summer -- a small glass house cooled only with a 15-inch exhaust fan and a bit of shading compound painted on the outside.  Most of the sarniensis survived one summer, but I probably should have watered them more.  No flowers as far as I can recall.

Half the Cyclamen died, as I recall.

The following couple of summers I tried putting all these things under a bench outdoors in the lath house.  We had lots of rain.  Most of the rest of the Cyclamen rotted, and a few of the Nerine rotted; so this was another unsuccessful  experiment.

They all (well, those that survived) have been going into the basement for the last several years.  Now that I have a much larger greenhouse, with a massive set of cooling exhaust fans at one end and a large swamp cooling pad at the other, I guess I could try some of these plants in there over summer.  This large greenhouse is also permanently shaded with shade cloth inside at eave-level.  Come to think of it, this sounds like a fairly plausible place to try summering such things.

Let's see if I can remember to try some of them (not the africanum or graecum!) in the big, cooled, greenhouse next summer.  I can limit the maximum  temperatures in there in summer to 90 F or even to 85 F if I want.

Jim

[udo]

wonderful pictures from all,
here Cyclamen colchicum, first time with some more flowers

[johnw]

and a large swamp cooling pad at the other,

Jim  - Tell me more. 

johnw

[Mark Griffiths]

Nice colchicum, Udo.

I find the scent isn't quite as powerful as C.purpurascens but then I only have one clone I think despite getting plants / seeds from different people.

I found I have my first seedlings up! I sowed some C.persicum ex a plant from J&J Archibald from Rhodes which is more compact than most forms. Sadly it's a bit of a pig to grow. I have a few persicum like that. Others grow literally like weeds. 

[jshields]

Jim  - Tell me more. 

johnw

John,
I think I need to take some pictures.  The greenhouse is 28 ft x 96 ft.  There are 3 large (40 inch diameter) fans blowing air out of the greenhouse at one end and a 4 ft high by 24 ft long pad at the other over which water runs when in maximum cooling mode.  Even on a humid day here, there is significant cooling from this system.  It is now about 8 years old, and everything is breaking/needing to be replaced.  We are about 2/3 of the way through that process.  (Maybe I should take up a collection? )
Jim

[Hans A.]

Some superb plants!
Thanks for sharing the pictures to all!

Summer seems to be over, here always the first - Cyclamen graecum 'Album' (or f. album ?)

[jshields]

... - Cyclamen graecum 'Album' (or f. album ?)

That's a good question.  What is the proper term for this plant?

Jim

[Maggi Young]

In this article on C. graecum, Sandy Leven calls his plant  C. graecum album  : http://www.srgc.org.uk/monthfeature/nov2004/content.html   but I think it is more correctly C. graecum  forma album

The Cyclamen Society has it so : http://www.cyclamen.org/graecum_set.html 
as does the PBS :
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/CyclamenSpeciesTwo