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Anyone grow hardy Cyclamen?
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Posted by linnea56 z5 IL (My Page) on Mon, Sep 11, 06 at 18:36
| I saw hardy cyclamen listed in a catalog as a bulb. I had no idea these were bulbs! Anyone grow this? Like or dislike it? The foliage is really pretty. Bloom time is supposed to be late summer: by that I don't know if they mean July, August, September? I would much rather it bloomed when most bulbs bloom, in the spring, but it might be worth it for the foliage. I wonder if it dies back like other bulb foliage? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Anyone grow hardy Cyclamen?
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| They are very small, and need very good drainage. Grow from a tuber which goes dormant in summer and restarts in fall to early winter. C. hederifolium and C. coum should both be hardy in your area. Here is a specific forum on them on another board (Hope it's ok to post this) George |
Here is a link that might be useful: GB Cyclamen forum
RE: Anyone grow hardy Cyclamen?
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| The flowers are small, or the plants are small? Thanks for the link! |
RE: Anyone grow hardy Cyclamen?
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| For these two hardy ones, both flowers and plants are relatively dainty. A large one would be maybe 5-7" tall with leaves about 2" across. Once they get large though, they can have dozens of flowers on each tuber. The typical florist cyclamen which grows as a houseplant above zone 8 or 9 is much larger both in habit and flowers. I'm not really much of a cyclamen grower, but some of the people in that forum linked are real experts. Try this site also. George |
Here is a link that might be useful: Cyclamen Society
RE: Anyone grow hardy Cyclamen?
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| I planted them last fall, in dry shade. It must have been too dry because they are all dead now. |
RE: Anyone grow hardy Cyclamen?
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If you have Cyclamen hederifolium, it's a little early for a show of blooms, None of mine are up yet, probably another 2 weeks before they start. They don't require a lot of moisture while they are dormant during the summer. I have one that I grow in a pot, for an early Sept. flower show and it seldom receives water during the summer. Since it's a potted plant, it begins flowering in late August and now has about 15 flowers, with more to come. If you didn't plant them too deeply, they should bloom this month. I place the top of the tuber flush with the soil level and lightly cover it with sand and small gravel, insuring that the planting area is well drained. The one in the pot has about one-third of the tuber exposed above soil level.
All Cyclamen species, except C. repandum, should be planted very shallow, in well drained soil, with only a light covering of soil, sand or grit.
Check the tubers, if they are still firm, there is a good chance they will still bloom this year.
Rb |
RE: Anyone grow hardy Cyclamen?
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| I have C. hederifolia. I bought the tubers in leaf from a local nursery in an 8 in or so pot & planted them at the height they were in the pot. They have bloomed the past 2 falls in mid to late September. I put them in a dry spot under the very dense crabapple tree next to my patio. I find the foliage to be a very pretty mottled silver on green & an attractive shape, but the flowers are fairly small and a washed out pink, not nearly as pretty as the picture at John Scheepers. It is possible that there are much better colored hederfolias than those I purchased locally and I have been thinking about adding some new ones & hoping for a better color. At present I have to admit that I think of them more as a novelty plant - it seems so unusual to see the pink blooms (even washed out ones!) in fall at the time when most things in that bed are all tattered & worn looking. However, unless you have lots of these little guys I don't think that mine at least make much of an impact in the garden. I added some Toad Lilies to the area as companions for them which helps a bit, but the toads are so vigorous I'm afraid they may overrun the cyclamen. I'll have to see how things work out. |
RE: Anyone grow hardy Cyclamen?
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| The spot I have in mind is under an ash tree, to be planted inside a ring of Regina Heuchera. I have planted annuals in here before, but it's really too shady for them to do much. To have something that blooms in fall, with attractive foliage, would be a nice novelty. I'm not clear on a couple of things...do they produce leaves at a different time of year than the flowers? And, since these will be outside, how deep should they be planted? I have not found a place to buy them yet: suggestions welcome. |
RE: Anyone grow hardy Cyclamen?
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| They are great plants - if given the right conditions, they will spread to form large colonies. My C. hederifolium are in bloom right now, both a clump of pink flowered ones and a larger, older clump of white. They are in an area underneath larger shrubs, shady but not overly dry - it gets regular irrigation in summer. The flowers appear first, late summer to early fall, and then are followed by the very attractive foliage, which lasts all winter here. They go dormant in summer so remember where you planted them and not disturb them. I was weeding in this area one summer and unearthed a huge, frisbee-sized object that was the mother corm of the oldest clump - they get big! I quickly buried it right under the soil surface and fortunately, no damage was done. Cyclamen coum are late winter bloomers - they appear in February/March in my garden, again followed by the foliage, and last until around May, when they go dormant also. |
RE: Anyone grow hardy Cyclamen?
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| You can buy them from Seneca Hill Perennials. I have always been very happy with the quality of all the plants I have bought from Ellen. |
RE: Anyone grow hardy Cyclamen?
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| I just bought a C. coum yesterday at a local nursery/garden homestead now owned by the PA Horticultural Society. It was already in bloom but lists Nov - Feb as the usual bloom period. It looks like this: 
I've grown C. persica for a number of years in the past and it's sortof cool to see how similar they appear, although these flowers are a bit smaller. More and more I am looking for year-round bloom potential and these, along with some of the fall blooming crocuses and hellebores, seem to offer that possibility when there's no snow cover. |
RE: Anyone grow hardy Cyclamen?
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| That is Cyclamen hederifolium in your picture, Jenny. I'll get together a few pictures for you and return to post. |
RE: Anyone grow hardy Cyclamen?
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| I have tried several times to grow these. I think my problem is that it is hard to figure out what end is up! No instructions came with them as to how to tell. There is a concave side, and a more rounded side, but growth on either side and it isnt clear which is the root side. Can anyone offer a foolproof way of telling? I do have one blooming now of three that I planted this spring. I must have planted the other two either upside down or too deep. The one that is blooming is adorable. trish |
RE: Anyone grow hardy Cyclamen?
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| Actually most bulbs will grow no matter how they are planted. Been there done that with dormant Cyclamen and other bulbs. I suspect the problem with dry Cyclamen tubers is that they have been out of the ground too long. Two years ago I purchased mail order what was supposed to be Cyclamen cilicium which turned out as hederifolium. Although the tubers were large, some never made the grade while the rest took two years to flower and recover. Except for Cyclamen repandum, the other hardy species should be planted right at the ground surface. Repandum needs deep planting , about 5 inches down. A friend in the next county has grown all the following species in the open garden for some years now. Zone 6b is what I would guess it is there. repandum
coum
hederifolium
cilicium
elegans
alpinum
purpurascens
intaminatum
pseudibericum
colchicum Here are a few pictures. I have some Cyclamen planted in the garden but most are still in pots while I decide where to site them. They want excellent drainage, a bit of protection, and nothing major to compete with them by overhanging or shading them out. The base of large trees, beneath evergreen shrubs or a Japanese maple, on a protected slope is where I'd plant them. They make good companions for hellebores. Two years ago I planted some beneath my atlas cedar where it is well drained and they all have done well. coum 
Purpurascens- fragrant flowers, evergreen 
Cilicium - fragrant flowers 
Hederifolium 
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RE: Anyone grow hardy Cyclamen?
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| Yes, I don't know who is raising all the cyclamen for the local nurseries down here in SE PA, but only once (at Groff's near Quarryville) have I seen them labeled correctly. All the hederifolium seems to be labeled coum and vice-versa. I have finally planted out a couple of hederifolium this fall, and will see how they like my sites. George |
RE: Anyone grow hardy Cyclamen?
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| Am new to this forum & am late in the conversation but thought I'd post anyway. I think my plant is a hederifolium. Because of deer and heat here in TX, I don't plant mine outdoors in summer but keep than housebound where they bloom all summer long. Someone wrote of washed-out pink. Take a look at this one, both leaves and flower look like technicolor. Only thing on tag other than care is Lowe's (no grower). |
Here is a link that might be useful: My cyclemen
RE: Anyone grow hardy Cyclamen?
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| I think your cyclamen is a hybrid persicum type, not hederifolium. Very pretty but I don't think it would do well outdoors. Thanks for bringing up this thread again, I love the pictures. |
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