Cyclamen

I have started to build my bed at the side of the house by the back door, and I have terraced it using log roll to make a two tier bed. I have planted my dad's clumps of christmas roses which look very happy, and the idea is to have fuschias doing their thing here all summer. But I would like to put something in for a bit of winter colour as it is the main entrance to the house.

Can anyone tell me anything about cyclamen? Do they come up in the autumn and then vanish for summer, or are they in foliage all year round?

I do think they look very pretty at a very bleak time of year.

 

If you plant a mixture of Cyclamen coum and Cyclamen hederifolium you will get flowers from January onwards with the first and August onwards for the latter. The leaves of coum do begin to disappear about now, but they are soon replaced by the hederifolium leaves which last until December. The cyclamen sold as bedding in garden centres is a form of C. persicum which is not really hardy enough to survive winter in most place, most of the time.
PM me if you want some baby corms of Cc. coum and hederifolium to try.

 

In the autumn, I bought 2 types of the Cyclamen - no idea of their specific names I'm afraid. The 2 larger indoor ones flowered from the end of August to March. Now their flowers have finished, but their foilage is still ok and bushy. Should I keep them where they are, keep watering as normal and will they flower again next autumn? Or are they finished forever? I think Cyclamen are a type of bulb, but I don't know how they work.

I planted several little outdoor Cyclamen in my window boxes. They did really well until, the really cold winter set in and eventually they just disintegrated. There is only one tiny one left and it has not flowered since about November. Are they are dead or is there any hope for new life later in the year?

 

Never even tried to gorw the C. persicum types so not really able to help with these.
They grow from a corm. In some species these can get very big. I have seen one which filled a 12 inch plant pot, rim to rim.
Sadly once that corm rots you have had it.

 

You can get good results from cyclamen for long periods of the year depending on the types that you buy. Beware of C. persicum which is sold in garden centres as bedding as they generally won't survive a winter.

 

Thank you! Just got back from weekend away, so will pm in morning.

I don't think I have anything exciting to send you in return