Shade Gardening: Cyclamen cilicium in Bloom, 1 by zonedenial

zonedenial wrote:
Cindy; I plant them shallowly. Perhaps a half inch underground, but sometimes they sink to an inch under. I think the main thing is loose, well draining soil, avoiding low-lying spots; any hint of standing water, including in the winter, and you've got a rotted tuber. Second, in our hot summers, they need shade, especially in the afternoon. They do like a bit of alkalinity, too (we're underlain by limestone, so no problem there). I think the planting depth thing may be overdone; I really don't obsess over how deep they are planted, within reason. I think a lot of that comes from Great Britain, where the climate allows very shallow planting, with rotting much more of a worry due to wetness. That's just my guess though; anybody else that grows cyclamens in the colder zones of the U.S. think differently? They say purpurascens, and especially repandum should be planted deeper anyway, so it would seem a hint that cyclamens can tolerate being a little deeper. Coums are funny; it seems like you struggle for a couple of years getting them to even grow, then they start seeding all over the place.Here's a picture of a typical patch of little coum seedlings. They even seed out into our woods a bit.