[Alisdair]

One of the best bulbs for mediterranean gardens is Cyclamen persicum - the wild species, as opposed to the many colourful "pot plant" cyclamen cultivars that have been bred from it. It is elegant but tough, beautifully fragrant, and stands any amount of heat during its summer dormancy (when it should be left unwatered). As with most other cyclamen species, the silvery patterns on the leaves vary from plant to plant, giving interest even when they are not flowering. Here is one of the thousands which we saw growing wild, during the MGS trip to Israel in March; this one was growing in a rock cleft on Mount Hermon.
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In a pine wood lower down there were thousands upon thousands, glowing in the shadows or picking up shafts of sunlight, most of them the classic colour as in the first picture, but some much pinker, often a good clear warm pink with no hint of magenta. The air was heady with their scent. Our friend Johannes, picking his way among them (very difficult to avoid treading on any!), gives an idea of the scale:
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[HansA]

Fantastic pictures Alisdair!

Cyclamen persicum grows very well here and is seeding freely ( not as much as C. hederifolium). A very generous friend gave me seeds of the autumflowering form a few years ago, perhaps they will get the first flowers this year.

[Alisdair]

Thanks, Hans!
And that gift from your friend underlines what Heini was saying about the generosity of gardeners.

[Chantal]

If you want more cyclamen seeds, Hans, we have cyclamen coum, hederifolium and graecum seeds on our seed list. It is a free service for all MGS members. Just click on the MGS website for the conditions.
Perhaps, you are allready a member? sorry if I repeat some times the same things.

[HansA]

Thanks a lot Chantal - I had a look on the seedlist - there is a good number of quite interesting species!

First autumn flowering species started  - very early in my opinion.

[oron peri]

Hans,

This is a real beauty, mine flower much later, about mid October and lust for quite a few weeks.It is not un comon to see C. graecum subsp graecum in flower already in mid August, i have seen it in Crete a couple of times, mainly in shaded rocky places where they get dew at night.
This species is superb in the garden and can resist grought probably better then any other Cyclamen.  

[Alisdair]

Yes, that white one is gorgeous, Hans; thanks!
As Oron says, Cyclamen graecum is wonderful for mediterranean-climate gardens. The lustrous patterns on the velvety leaves, almost every plant differing from its neighbours, make it very special even when it's not in flower, and it stands up to long months of drought without worry. In our hot south-slope garden in the south of Greece, plants in full sun can get rather stressed, and they do better with a little shade there, but I think that is exceptional; in milder gardens they seem perfectly happy in full sun.
If you start with one or two plants, you'll find that they do start seeding themselves around, and the resulting plants, usually "sown" by ants, will probably do even better than the ones you planted yourself. As the photo shows, these wild-sown plants can end up in the most extraordinary places, all sorts of intriguing nooks and crannies.
Incidentally we have a venerable plant of C. graecum, our very first cyclamen, which - NB this was before the CITES regulations, and before we knew better! - we dug up on the island of Skopelos nearly 40 years ago, and which, in its pot here under unshaded glass in the UK and left unwatered until it flowers, always comes into flower much earlier than any other graecums. This year it started in July.

[HansA]

Fantastic colour, Alisdair!
Have some seedlings of dark C. graecum, seeds came from Jim Archibald a few years ago - hope they will be as dark as yours.

Thanks a lot Oron - C. graecum album always are the first here (several plants of a group have started) - but I noticed also one flower on a plant which antecedents are from Cyprus - when I am not wrong C. graecum from Cyprus belong to subspecies anatolicum.

[cycnich]

Here are a few interesting forms I have been lucky to see in the wild and to cultivate.

[cycnich]

A couple more

[ezeiza]

So very attractive.

To cultivate means you are propagating them from seed?

[fragman]

and this is how it looks at the moment, seeds are long dispersed...

[MikeHardman]

Mmmm. Nice.

I found a specimen at RHS Wisley (S. UK), some years ago, with randomly marbled leaves (whereas there is almost always a symmetry to the variegation of Cyclamen leaves). Alan, the rock garden superintendent at the time, let me dig it up and try to propagate it. But over winter, the mice got it.

[John]

Here's a few of my selections of C. hederifolium some of which were produced by gradual selection.
1st a marginal silver leaf
2nd a flower with a bold bloody nose.
3rd typical C. hederifolium on the left with a C. confusum on the right showing the size difference in flowers.
4th a dark flowered form.

[ezeiza]

Wow, John! What a beauty.