We love: hardy Cyclamen
Posted:19 January 2013
Cyclamen are looking wonderful at this time of year. They have been flowering their hearts out for several weeks now at The Garden House, their brilliant pink (though some are white) flowers highlighting the more monotone shades of the winter garden. In terms of flowering time, they are simply brilliant value for money at this time of year and are incredibly easy to grow!
Despite the weather we’re working in the garden and there are signs of growth everywhere. We have Cyclamen for sale as well many other typically winter shrubs and perennials, including Sarcococca, Skimmia, Cornus mas, Cornus alba ‘Sibirica’, Helleborus niger (our January plant of the month) and evergreen Euonymus. The plants are priced at between £4.50 and £6.00. If you are interested in buying then please email us to arrange a time to visit the garden and make your purchase. We are also selling some very striking ironwork plant supports made by Lorraine Philpot at the Firle Forge.
Even our Garden House cat Aniseed can be seen admiring them!
Facts about Cyclamen:
- in the Primulaceae family, and therefore are surprisingly related to primulas and cowslips
- they are tuberous perennials with rounded, sometimes angular, leaves which are often attractively mottled
- the nodding, characteristically shaped flowers have 5 reflexed and twisted petals, often with dark markings at the base
- most species need shelter from the wind and driving rain, also shade in varying degrees all need well-drained soil
- they are normally seen under trees, in lightly wooded areas, in rockeries, or against hedges
- they self propagate fairly quickly eventually creating beautiful drifts
- most common is Cyclamen hederifolium, but we particularly love Cyclamen coum
- C. coum is a perennial to 10cm, with rounded leaves sometimes marbled with silver on the upper surface, it’s flowers are 2cm in width, deep pink, with a purple blotch at the base of each lobe, open from late winter
Join us on our outing to Cambridge University Botanic Garden on Friday 22 February to see early snowdrops and narcissi and so much more. This tranquil and inspirational garden has over 8,000 plant species and nine national collections and is particularly worth visiting in the winter as it is designed to showcase a remarkable array of plants with interesting bark foliage, stem colour, flowers and fragrance. CLICK HERE for more INFO.
We visited Pelion in Greece in late October and were delighted to find cyclamen growing in the wild.
