cyclamen Neapolitana

Think it may now be called Hederifolium.

anyway there are loads of round balls with springs on all round the huge corms which I presume are the seeds. they spread themselves round quite merrily, but I want to put some under another tree.

When is best time to do this? Do I just pick them up and leave them close to surface?
the leaves are all died back now so thought now might be the time, but book says they transplant badly.

 

I have very little experience of transplanting them but I can't imagine if the corms are going into essentially the same ground that they came from that they will suffer. I know that dried corms often don't take, and I know that sitting them somewhere with damp feet will rot them, but other than that I wouldn't be too cautious. Just dig them up with a clod of soil still attached to them so the withering roots wont get damaged and start to rot. Others may know better.

 

They are not corms, they are like 1cm spherical balls with little springs on. I suppose they are seeds???

the parent corms are huge - I thought they were the apple tree trunk but then realised what they were corms.

silly me I should have stuck some in the plant I sent to you.

 

Got some cleavers though!! A chap at the RHS told me that these things are a doddle to grow from seed, and move better when very young. I don't know how ripe that seed is yet but you could just chuck a few about and see what happens?

 

Keep your eye on the little round balls, which are the seed pods. When they begin to split (mid July ish usually here),you may notice ants crawling all over them. The seeds which are inside are covered in a sweet substance which ants love. they take the seeds away, lick off the sugar and leave the seeds to grow where they are dropped.
So when the pods split, help them along and you will have a large number of tine pinkish/brown seeds. Wash them gently in a little warm soapy water. No need to dry, sow them straight away on the surface of the compost, put some where safe and leave them alone. They normally germinate quite quickly.
OR. Do as I do and scatter the washed seed on my gravel garden and forget about them until the corms are big enough to move on.
OR, just throw the seed where you want your new corms to be.
The corms themselves may be moved any time now if you have spare ones growing around the old big corms.

These are seed pods on one of our C.hederifolium

This is one seed pod

This is inside with very unripe seeds.

[ 28. June 2006, 08:51 PM: Message edited by: Palustris ]

 

The round balls with the coil attached is the seed pod.The pods coil down to soil level to disperse the seed.

The seeds are covered with a sticky substance which ants love,so carry off the seed to new places to colonise.

If sowing the seed, then the seed should be put in a sieve, like the ones for sifting flour, and should be put under warm running water, or soaked for 24 hours.

The seeds can either be sprinkled back at the main site or sown in half seed trays in a mixture of leaf mould and multi- purpose compost, leaving the seed on top of this mixture.Water and put in a cool spot.

Small seedlings can be picked up from around the larger corms with the aid of tweezers, and placed in the same sort of mixture as for seed sowing, or pricked out into the trays that have small cells in them.

I have had success with both ways of propagation as I like to experiment with ways of doing things.

Hope this helps.

Kandy

 

WOW ! A to Z from both of you!

My dad bought the original seeds about 20 years ago and they cost him �£1 per seed which was a good deal of money then - still is for a seed. They look fantastic under old apple tree, so will hopefully get them going under new trees.

as to your gravel area palustris - like yours my seeds have migrated themselves, I think they will have taken over my whole car park soon, but I don't mind as they are such a fantastic plant, just wish I could get C.coum going the same.

 

Grief, we have coum as a lawn weed. However, the Cyclamen society magazine does say that coum is less likely to spread around like hederifolium. Now me, I would like to get C. repandum going!
If you have not got C. coum I can send you some seeds to try, if I can find a corm in amongst the hederifolium.

 

Begging letter- anyone got seeds of either to spare please?

 

Palustris - yes please to seeds of coum, I have tried other cyclamen but they do not like the frost poscket here - could be tempted to try again.

Liz you can have some of my watsits with the springs on.

 

Thanks very much- that would be lovely.
My seedlings from you are beginning to grow little plantlets at their base. What should they be doing?

 

I will send you some little - errr like above picture from palustris.

as to seedlings - don't know! I have some of mine potted up and some dug in round the garden. the mother plant is now dying back and there are big fruits beginning to develop.

I think we just leave them alone and see what happens in the spring??? your guess is as good as mine, but will post more pictures of mother plant.

 

Liz I have some seeds for you in the post. Some of the seeds are brown, some white as above.

 

I sent someone some cyclamen plantlets a couple of months ago. All I did was to take them out of the gravel with a spatula and wrP them in moss, then in bubble wrap and put them in a padded envelope and theY arrived safely and when last heard of were growing nicely. bit hard to find them at present, but when they start again it is easy enough to dig up some of the 1,000s we have.
Now C. coum is a bit diferent, I can only find one definite tuber and that has only one seedpod on it, so you may not get any of that, sorry.

 

Thanks both. Waco, they arrived safely today! Great. I sowed some cyclamen seed earlier in the year, got 2 seedlings and then got fed up, but luckily used the compost for more seeds, now I have little cyclamen popping up all over. It doesn't say on the packet what variety, but what should I do over winter? The biggest is about 1" high.