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| Garden Layout - Plants - Cyclamen
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| I'm slowly trying to increase the number of cyclamens in the garden. In 1998, I planted C.coum into the rockery and I love to use C.persicum, the florists' cyclamen, in winter baskets, but this is the one that inspired my interest. | |
| Cyclamen hederifolium neapolitanum is a gorgeous specimen. I've had this tuber for 5 years, and it's grown from being a mere 40mm in diameter to its current size of 175mm. It lies dormant from the start of summer until the first cool days of september, and then it starts to throw up these angelic pink flowers, held only 50mm or so above the ground. |  C.hederifolium neapolitanum in late August/early September |
 C.hederifolium neapolitanum in October |
By October, it's overwhelmed with flowerrs, and the first of the marbled green leaves starts to appear. It will continue to flower until mid-November, by when the leaves have taken over making a wonderful dome of patterned leaves that will last through the worst the winter can throw at them. |
| The leaves disappear with the warmer weather, and the seed pods, held on tightly coiled stems, are laid bare, ready for harvesting. The tuber is re-potted each year with fresh compost, enriched with my home made leaf mould, and tucked into a corner until it re-awakens at the end of summer. The seeds are sown immediately on the surface of a planting mixture consisting of 50% MP compost, 25% loamy topsoil and 25% leaf mould, and placed in a cold frame until they germinate, sometimes later that season, more often the following spring. It takes 3 years to grow these on to decent sized tubers, ready for planting out in the garden. |
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