Cyclamen season has started

The first blooms have started on my Cyclamen hederifolium 'Album'. This marks the start of my fall bulb season. A couple of Colchicum have just broken the surface as well.

This little super mini is Cyclamen intaminatum.

My C hederifolium have popped up a few flowers in the last few days too, but I don't have the white.

C intaminatum is a little cutie! It looks to have stripes, I didn't know there were any with stripes. Did you grow them from seed?

Doesn't the Cyclamen society provide seeds?

I got C. intaminatum as a bulb from a grower in BC. I've gotten a number from them in the past including C. coum, C. intaminatum, C. graecum, C. libanoticum, C. pseudibericum and C. repandum. I am also growing intaminatum from seed but they are 2-3 years from blooming yet. Those seeds DID come from the Cyclamen Society.

Seed is often the best way to go, you don't always know how the bulbs have been grown and they sometimes go to mush like my C libanoticum and C cyprium did this summer.

Your grower must grow them properly Todd, if you can buy a good bulb it certainly saves a few years.

I was thinking of getting some seed from Ashwood Gardens here, they sell many different species and cultivar seeds but it's a little late, and I have enough to catch up with. Besides my gladiolus species passion is close on taking priority. About to take the plunge!

I only have two glad species....the common byzantinus and the uncommon but lovely saundersonii which is just starting to spike. It regularly flowers in mid-late September but seeds never ripen. Here's the saundersonii.

That one looks familiar, I think silverhillseeds has it, yep they have but they call it saundersii, unless it's very similar

http://www.silverhillseeds.co.za/ByName.asp

If that link doesn't go to the list search by name and put in Gladiolus

G comm byzantinus too, and some G dalenii I grew from seed last year looking good, they are quite quick to mature.

I sorted out 15 that I want, I have a list somewhere of other seeds I found I wanted so need to be selective, gulp!

You have seen G papillio but here it is this year, they are all spiking

You are right..its saundersii. I tried dalenii from seed but never got a single seed to germinate. What is the trick?

I think I autumn sowed them, or late winter, I got the seed from van Dusen Bot. Garden. I put quite a few seed in at the same time (from different sources), those you would think are borderline hardy but they do well sown in the autumn, and overwinter no trouble in my cold greenhouse. Ixia viridiflora is another, I had 2 of those flower this year. Dietes grandiflora is another, Babiana ringens but they were really tiny this year. Just put them in and leave them in a cold greenhouse, it's a miracle! Not sure about your cold though, but many of the bulbs should be autumn sown.

I would have a look at the label but it's dark , I usually write the date of sowing on them.

Most of those from silverhill are autumn sowing, so I must get a move on with the order!

I checked, I sowed the seed on 24th April last year, but I did sow a lot of others in the autumn. Perhaps I would have done these too but things don't always get done when you want to. I also tried G carinatus from elsewhere and they didn't germinate.