Whats Looking Good January 2023

@Balc, I am in an urban heat island in the south of England, surrounded by extremely tall concrete buildings, so it is sheltered from wind though a bit short of light. It is probably one of the mildest places in the UK, I am very lucky. I don't fully understand urban heat islands, I will read up about them. There has been lots of rain most days for ages since the December cold spell, which the Cyclamen persicum don't seem to mind. That pictured one is in a giant pot with other plants, I think its drainage is probably good.

I do remember that in the couple of days immediately after the December cold spell the Cylamen persicum's flowers were lying almost flat, at a very acute angle to the ground. When they recovered, quickly, they were more upright than before the cold spell and the flowers looked clearer.

Edit: this is a good explanation of urban heat islands. It seems they have more effect in winter and at night, so might protect plants from extreme winter and night-time drops in temperature.

Urban Heat Islands | Center for Science Education

I thought is was strange that the Stinky Ditch Nursery man who does Youtube videos about Cyclamen says that Cyclamen persicum isn't hardy in the uk, and he is in Devon, which has a mild climate. Maybe he just isn't in an urban heat island.

Also Cyclamen persicum's genes have been manipulated endlessly for centuries, and every plant has unique genes, they are all grown from seed. So maybe their hardiness varies?

 

@groundbeetle Thanks for the info! That page was quite interesting!

 

The very next day I got an email from the Met Office blog almost quoting the article you linked to!

 

I thought the article explained Urban Heat Islands particularly well.

 

Stinky Ditch Nursery is in Weston-super-Mare which is on the Bristol Channel and gets hammered by the Atlantic gales and couldn't really be described as an "Urban Heat Island".
Also it's not simply how cold it gets, it's how long it stays cold for.

 

It's amazing what our son's can grow and leave out to face the winter elements without any detrimental effects.

Images of the Heat Island Effect ..London.

 

Winter seems to be a lot less harsh than it used to be

 

Sssshhhhh look what happened in 2010/11! It came from Germany, too Don't tempt fate!

 

cyclamen coum and I think percicum

 

That looks like coum, and maybe the leaves of hederifolium?

Hederifolium flowers in autumn, around August and September. Persicum would be in full flower now, and its leaves are usually intensely patterned with silver.

I am no expert. I am just beginning to get used to cyclamen.

 

Hi@groundbeetle. I’m sure you know better than I. Thank you V

 

@groundbeetle hi, I’ve had a look at de Jägers catalogue three years ago that I ordered my cyclamen from.
Do you think they could be coum an pseudibericum. V

 

I don't know enough about cyclamen species to know, I have only recently got interested in them, but I just looked in my book, "The Genus Cyclamen" by Christopher Grey-Wilson, which shows a drawing of a pseudibericum leaf and it could be those leaves in your photograph. It seems pseudibericum flower in February and March, when coum are past their best. That would distinguish pseudibericum from hederifolium which flowers in August and September. I think one of the hederifolium that I have flowered in late July.

I planted some mixed cyclamen seeds about two and a half years ago, and the different plants have leaves that I first thought were hederifolium but might not be, some unusual leaf shapes, and one flowered with a single pink flower that I thought was hederifolium, in October as the photographs of it were taken on 15th October 2022, and again it might not be.

From what I have found out, pseudibericum is reasonably hardy, and described by Christopher Grey-Wilson as one of the most attractive species in cultivation, and not common.

 

More of the different leaves from the mixed cyclamen seeds that I planted about two and a half years ago, which I assumed all were hederifolium, but I don't really have a clue what they are. They haven't flowered yet. When I find out what the flowers look like and when they flower I might be able to identify them.

 

@groundbeetle . Thank you so much for your observations. It’s quite fascinating isn’t it. I love cyclamen, and I try to get rid of any that flower in autumn in that area of my garden as I read that autumn flowered species quickly over run the gentle January flowering ones. My autumn flowered ones have very large ivy leaved magenta through to pale pink plants. In my sandy warm soil these flowers seed very freely, so I shall look out for the, what I believe to be psuedibiricum seed pods and sow them. V