Cyclamen 2013

[Naoto The Zombie]

Thank you @SJW, @Maggi and @cycnich! 

Though it may be still legal I don't feel right, so I will be more careful next time!

[Mark Griffiths]

Cyclamen graecum anatolicum

There has been some discussion on the forum on how this should be distinguished from other forms of C. graecum. Tony Willis suggested (privately) to me that in this form growth occurs all over the top of the tuber rather than just from the centre; this is consistent with my own observations of the 3 plants I have under this name. I have also noticed that the flowers on these plants mostly tend to droop & then shrivel while remaining attached to the scape rather than falling away cleanly as mostly happens in other forms of graecum. Has anyone else noticed this?

Interesting. Is the Monte Smith form of graecum anatolicum? I have a plant raised from CS seed (so it may not be true) that has growth points all over it.

[Mark Griffiths]

 On the dried collected tubers - I thought that some cyclamen were now being grown in fields (presumably from seed) and then harvested and imported as dried tubers. I think I've seen some packs that made some statement about not being wild collected although they look the same as the infamous woolworth's packs of days gone by.

and of course they still have pictures that aren't right on the packs...

for me I buy tubers very rarely now, I prefer to grow from seed.

[Maggi Young]

On the dried collected tubers - I thought that some cyclamen were now being grown in fields (presumably from seed) and then harvested and imported as dried tubers. I think I've seen some packs that made some statement about not being wild collected although they look the same as the infamous woolworth's packs of days gone by.

and of course they still have pictures that aren't right on the packs...

for me I buy tubers very rarely now, I prefer to grow from seed.

I've seen some of those, Mark - but they all tend to be little, regularly sized and shaped tubers- nothing  like that giant bought at  the show.

[Mark Griffiths]

hmm, that's a shame. Overall the whole sustainable growing of cyclamen in Turkey seemed a better answer for all concerned than simply ripping them out of habitat. I'm surprised that the importers still find wild collected plants an attractive proposition.

[Maggi Young]

Since there are packets of the "expected" type and size of tubers for sale there must be a degree of sustainable farming going on - maybe just not enough .

[SJW]

Interesting. Is the Monte Smith form of graecum anatolicum? I have a plant raised from CS seed (so it may not be true) that has growth points all over it.

Mark, yes I think the Monte Smith form (ie ex. Rhodes) is graecum anatolicum.

[Gerry Webster]

Interesting. Is the Monte Smith form of graecum anatolicum? I have a plant raised from CS seed (so it may not be true) that has growth points all over it.

The provenance of the 3 plants I have of C. graecum anatolicum (from Peter Moore & Pat Nichols)  is said to be Monte Smith, Rhodes. They are quite different in flower though not in leaf.

[Mark Griffiths]

mine is an odd thing. Basically green with slightly raised cream veins. Never a flower so far and it's tiny. I have another "anatolicum" that has more typical leaves and is also tiny as in the leaves don't even get over the rim of the pot.

[johnralphcarpenter]

I visited the local Garden Centre today.  ...........so I left with my bags of grit.

Only one? I seem to go through potting grit at an alarming rate!

[Roma]

It was 3 bags, Ralph.  I only meant to buy two but there was a bit off per bag if I bought three.  I'm running out of John Innes now.  Inverurie Garden Centre doesn't stock it and the last I bought from Homebase (seed compost nearly a year ago) was so wet it still hasn't dried out.  I got potting compost in Dobbies more recently and it was ok.  It is further away and I hate that place.  I found out last time I was there the chap who looked after the house plants and I've known for over 30 years had left.  He was working at Smith & Sons when I went there before I went to the Cruickshank Garden and stayed on when it was taken over by Findlay Clark and then by Dobbies.  I heard from another source all the full time staff have been sacked and it is all part time staff now.  Even a few weeks after the new shop opened the plants looked neglected.  It is a windy site and pots dry out quickly but there are not enough knowledgable or ?interested staff or maybe just not enough staff to look after the plants properly.  Didn't mean to rant but I think all you people out there who know their plants don't like to see them neglected before sale.   

[johnralphcarpenter]

For Dobbies read Tesco!

[Mark Griffiths]

I sucumbed and bought to C.cilicium in bags, it says cultivated stock. No idea if they will survive. The picture on the pack looks like a persicum cultivar, bright pink with no nasal blotch. The plants are of course though cilicium, they are already in flower.

[SJW]

mine is an odd thing. Basically green with slightly raised cream veins. Never a flower so far and it's tiny. I have another "anatolicum" that has more typical leaves and is also tiny as in the leaves don't even get over the rim of the pot.

Mark - I read in the new Cyclamen book that the Monte Smith site is an "exposed windswept cliff and the windy conditions have created the most compact cushion forms of C. graecum often with leaves as broad as they are long. This characteristic feature is passed on to the next generation and is maintained in cultivation." Perhaps yours is an extreme example of this? Is anatolicum slower/more temperamental than normal C. graecum? Recently, I was debating whether to discard an ungerminated pot of anatolicum seeds sown in 2010 but noticed yesterday that one seedling has now come through. Better late than never! This Cyclamen Society seed was wild collected in May 2010 in the Goynuk Gorge, Beydag, Turkey. I'm sure I've read on the SRGC forum about the good graecum anatolicum leaf forms in this area (perhaps the collector is a forumist?) so I'm pleased that at least one of the seeds has eventually germinated.

Gerry's observation about anatolicum tubers having growing points all over rather than just from the centre is interesting. All my mature tubers came from mixed graecum seed so I don't know their subspecies status. Pretty sure none is candicum but one may be anatolicum although the flower markings aren't conclusive and none is scented. I'll take a closer look at the tuber growing points now though, if this is a consistent diagnostic feature.   

[Tony Willis]

This Cyclamen Society seed was wild collected in May 2010 in the Goynuk Gorge, Beydag, Turkey. I'm sure I've read on the SRGC forum about the good graecum anatolicum leaf forms in this area (perhaps the collector is a forumist?) so I'm pleased that at least one of the seeds has eventually germinated.

Cyclamen graecum grows in countless numbers (as it does over the whole area) in the gorge at Goynuk. This is a start to the walk to see Crocus wattiorum and once across the river the path which is part of the Anatolia long distance footpath follows an irrigation channel. Along this are magnificent plants both in size and in wonderful leaf forms of C. graecum. Leaf size is totally variable and ranges in my plants which are from my own seed  from just over 1 cm to 4 cms in diameter. The contribution to the Cyclamen society seed exchange is not mine.