Cyclamen coum in bloom!

I noticed these white Cyclamen open today.

I have a very bright pink one open too, but the flash has lightened them.

Does anyone else have some open?

Very pretty Wallaby--I don't do them but certainly enjoy looking at them. =)

I love those cyclamen Wallaby - can you explain a bit about what conditions they like? I read a paper once about the differences between coum and hederifolium and tho I know they bloom at different times I remember it said that one is more vigorous than the other and will eventually crowd it out. Trouble is, I can't remember which is which. Do you know? Would they tolerate a position like underplanted under hosta to give color after the hosta are gone? I think the foliage goes dormant for summer- right?
I think they'd be dynamite with polyanthus primroses also.

dmj, is your climate not suitable for them? They are a very pretty sight at this time of year.

alyrics, C hederifolium grows earlier and flowers in the autumn. I have some in a more open place but still under the edge of an oak tree, it can dry out quite a bit in summer and they do like to be dry then. Mine are setting a lot of seed around the original plants and will need thinning, they do set seed well if happy. I have used a good leafy compost on the place they are in, they prefer to be just under this type of loose surface.

C coum is winter flowering, starting to grow a little later, again they like a very free draining soil with lots of leaf mould. Mine are growing in a raised bed under a Horse Chestnut tree, so when they are flowering they don't get the shade as the tree is deciduous, but our winters are often dull anyway and quite cold, the average daytime temps are around 6C or low 40's, it is a little more mild now but can be colder. So what they get is a moist soil which doesn't dry out in the winter, free draining with good food. In the summer they are dormant and shaded, also much drier which is best when dormant to avoid rotting, and the tree roots help to take excess moisture. They are happy there, and also are setting seed which germinates over the autumn to winter period. In the same bed I grow Helleborus and they do well too. I also have a few species crocus which come a little later, but I think they flower while the C coum is still in flower, they tend to flower for a long time. Ferns do well there too.

Given our climates are probably too different I might just have to try a few near the hosta to see the timing and whether I could underplant the hosta. I have a huge hosta bed that is pretty lonely for our winter months but I thought the leaves appeared on the cyclamen before frost will kill off the hosta.

I have a very large maple, which I think may have originally been 4-5 maple saplings that grew together into one massive tree with multiple trunks. The grass is a bit thin right up near the trunkm and root flares, but considering, the grass is growing ok. There is quite a bit of moisture that percolates downhill towards this tree, so on one side its very bone dry, on the uphill side it is dampish, altho still dry right up by the tree. A bit of Sweet Woodruff established itself on the dry side and has survived. I've been thinking of roughing the surface of the soil a bit, adding 3-4 inches of soil and creating a bed to plant cyclamen, sweet woodruff, European ginger, hellebore, whatever will live there. I have plenty of stock plants as these things all seed themselves all over - all except the cyclamen which would be my new test plant. The light is high shade as the first branching trunks are probably 15 ft in the air. I suppose the earth is very compacted around the roots of the maple as its never been worked at all.

I wonder if the grass being able to grow is an indicator that there's sufficient moisture to grow the cyclamen?

The Maple would loose it's leaves for winter, giving light and more water when the Cyclamen need it. My tree is huge, but branches are fairly low, the built up bed is close to the trunk and some tree roots have grown to the surface in places, but this suits these plants as it keeps them dry in summer. If you could build a raised bed and fill it with a mix of gritty soil (mine was from a dug out drain so is very gritty), mixed with leaf mould that is perfect. If you haven't got gritty soil it may help to add some sharp sand or small stone chips or both. Mine has lots of natural small stones in it, this is river bed country.

I think C. coum may start to grow leaves before hosts are killed off, not sure though it would depend when you have the first frost, I have a raised hosta bed near it but not with Cyclamens. I have a felling the Cyclamen might get smothered in summer with hosta leaves, unless they have air room between it may not suit them.

This was taken on 17th Feb last year, it was a cold winter, this year so far is ahead of last year. That's the bright pink one, I have another paler pink on the other side next to the white. It's built up with recycled reconstitued stone bricks, some ferns at the edges and Polypodium australe nearer the trunk, it does well there and grows from August, dying back over summer.

Just charming, wallaby1.

Thanks.

You're welcome raydio. The flowers are cute little things, have you tried them?

Janet, again very nice! I could do them here in pots but I gotta draw the line somewhere--lol

They aren't real crazy about our excessive summer heat, if they get a lot of moisture while dormant. They sell them a lot around here as winter annuals. I just have so much bulb seed stuff going on right now I passed on them for this year. I have several things close to production size (have to keep a close eye on that stuff with this "Who'll Stop the Rain" winter); and then of course there's the newest obsession--the Cape bulbs I don't already have...

But I'm enjoying yours immensely! =)

Deb, we had it hot this year but dry so the wet could stew them, unless you could place them under an evergreen shrub that takes up moisture and provides more drainage, roots can help do that They are usually fairly expensive to buy, best bought in a pot growing as they don't transplant and re-establish easily.

If they are too soft grown they rot easily too, I prefer to hard grow them slowly. Some pewter leaf coums took 7 years to flower from seed! I think I have a younger seedling from the white one coming into flower, grown for a start in a tray and put in the ground last year, I ended up with very few, they seem to grow better in the ground.

Your cape bulbs that you don't have, my lilies that I have to sow and grow (as well as glads of course), busy people!

I had some years ago, but they vanished when I wasn't able to care for them as they would have liked. I think they just went too dry for too long or at the wrong time.

R.

Wallaby,

This is a terrific thread! I have been trying to get both hederafolium and coum
started. I managed to get some hederafolium to bloom last fall but so far no coum.
I should check around to see if any sign of leaves ... its been very warm so far.

Great cultural information.
Tam

HiTammy,

They do take a while to bloom, even if you buy mature bare root corms they take some time settling, or die! I see these squidgy flat corms hung in bags trying to grow, they should be nice and rounded and firm.

I would be surprised if you didn't have any leaves yet, mine have been in leaf for quite a long time. I have heard you've been having warm weather, ours has been mild but we have also had some cold spells.

Actually, all my coum are started from seed. :-)
Tam

Wallby1 - very very nice. I had them on a very dry hillside in a former garden and they did beautifully. I'll have to give some a try. Now I wonder when is the recommended time to plant for my Zone 5.

Tammy I thought yours would have been seed grown, how old are they? Consider my pewter leaf ones took 7 years from seed, but others can be quicker.

Those in the pics I bought already growing when in flower, quite cheaply too. The bright pink one was small but had flower buds, cost only £0.99, less than $2. The other two were supposed to be C. purpurascens but obviously not, in 9cm square pots with plenty of growth and were only £2 each. Great buys, cheaper than seeds and you get seeds too!

alyrics, if the ground isn't frozen I would think they can go in any time if grown in pots, I would only recommend buying them in pots if not growing from seeds.

Yours are flowering very early. I love these!

They are early Galanth, I checked the date on the pic from last year of the bright pink one, it was 14th February, but was a very long and early winter. They would have started earlier as that is in full flower.

I also have a pic of the pewter leaf coum with the first flowers last year, same date and I have the first flowers open today but haven't taken a pic yet, it was 13C at midday but the cold winds moved in as is usual at the moment.

I brought it inside for a pic on the 14th March, a month after the first flowers, they are smaller and different shape. The plants are bigger this year, I might put them in the ground later, I have some seed germinated from it.

I keep my coum in a cool greenhouse (8-12 C) and they are budded but not open yet. I expect another couple of weeks. I have two pewter-leaf forms, a pale lavender and bright magenta....but not the in-between colours of yours. I got them as blooming-sized but they cost $12 Canadian each! I also have some growing from seed. This is year two. I expect another 3-4 years before they reach flowering-size. I did get C. intaminatum to bloom 2 years from seed! :)

I went out in the dark and took some pics! Yours will be earlier than last year tooTodd, I think yours were just behind mine last year, or were they? The flowers on this one remind me of one I've seen on Ashwood nurseries site, Tilebarn Elizabeth, except it has a pink edging. The seed probably came from them in the first place, very few seed for a lot of £'s and I go three. Your $12 was probably well spent Todd! I should get seeds again this year, so if you want some I will have to try to remember.

I did look at their seeds when they were available but decided I had too many other things to cope with (for now).

I potted these up into 4" pots this year, I'm showing it with my hand in to get a size idea. The corms are still not huge, but swelling nicely, you can see they are green and more fleshy looking unlike most which are dark brown.

Here is a pic of one of mine from last year.

and my pale form.

on a side note, here is my C. intaminatum this past week.

The edges on your leaves are not as green as mine are, the pewter is very well covered in yours. The bright one looks closer to the normal flower shape too, the white is close, you wouldn't recognise mine as a coum. It must have something else in it, unless they do vary that much.

C intaminatum is delicate. The C. libanoticum and cyprium which I bought both rotted, seemingly after the summer and it was hot, I can only assume they were not good corms. Reason to grow from seed, or already growing, as they were both bare root but from good suppliers.

What wonderful little flowers they all are!

That's it. I have to order some C. intaminatum seed.

I lost my libanoticum this summer as well! Pseudibericum and repandum are also budding now. Rohlfsianum, from seed, only has one leaf so far, but its larger than last years so I guess that's a good sign. My pot of coum seedlings appears to have a mixed bag of species...some leaves look like coum (including one pewter-leaf form) but others look like hederifolium and intaminatum...oh well, thats seed exchanges for you! I do have 5 purpurascens seedlings just showing! :)

An update on the Cyclamen. The pewter leaf C coum is full of flower now with more to come, the bright pink one in the ground is just to the right, but is brighter than seen, the light was poor and it doesn't come out right.

The other pink one in the ground is just budding. I know now the other pink and white ones together were bought in probably February 2002 as C purpurascens (but are C. coum). I put the corms I grew from seed the first year in the ground, one white one has a flower and I put the label with it for reference. I didn't have many, I left them in a tray to fend for themselves with ferns self set amongst them, so they weren't looked after but after 4+ years I guess it's not bad.

This is it, the date on the lable sown 29th July 02.

The pink C coum has seedlings germinated in groups as they fell, these are from last year's seed and germinated in the autumn. You can see they have made small corms sat on the surface, with a single thin root into the ground. They seem to like growing that way, if you are picking leaves off they can be pulled out easily, these should dry over summer and grow again next year. I have some from the previous year growing, a bunch at the bottom of the dwarf wall. I didn't cover them, it was extremely hot and dry for a long period in summer and they are growing.


These are the last ones to grow, see the flower bud near by.

A larger view to show the scale, the white one you can see behind.

The bunch of seedlings at the base of the wall in their second year.

wallaby1~

What is the usual time from planting to flowering?

R.

The white C. coum is very full flowering now, it looks like more than one plant but is only one, an occasional seedling lurking amongst the leaves.

I think they can flower in 3+ years, some seed is naturally more robust than others, and some species flower more quickly than others. I think on the Tilbarn website it may mention it, I saw it somewhere. That is most likely with extra feeding, and I know I lost two I bought so I'm not keen on force feeding these bulbs. With better care in pots though they may flower earlier, I think many bulbs take a few years to flower. The do go dormant for the summer so it's a slow process.

These plants haven't made a lot of seed until the last two flowerings, not a lot of flowers either, and the seed pods always seemed to get bruised and broken by winds. Now they are bigger with more foliage they are better protected.

Thanks, W1. 3-4 years isn't terribly long at all for bulbs.

R.

Sweet expectaion.