[John]

And to be able to grow C. rohlfsianum outdoors too.
Here's another selected seedling which is doing well now. Not that exiting but quite a charming leaf and uniform in character. C. hederifolium.

[John]

Here's another leaf. Leaves are my thing! This one is another of the seedling from producing a C. graecum subsp. anatolicum silver leaf. This one may have C. g. subsp. graecum in it. I like the bronze edge which may fade away as the leaf matures.

[John]

Hans do your dark C. hederifolium come well from seed and true to colour?

[John]

This is my darkest form of C. confusum from western Crete. I have seen much darker but it is nice with an average leaf.

[John]

I only have a few C. rohlfsianum but chosen for their leaves. The first has what I consider a typical pale flower. The second has a darker pink flower. The third has quite a dark flower but leaves not up with it at this stage. This is the only species that I do not water in summer until growth is showing. The only exception is with seedlings which I think are too small to bake all summer in pots.

[Alisdair]

John's potted rohlfsianums, which I've seen a few times in the flesh, have a really sculptural quality - he grows them beautifully. 

[Miriam]

Wonderful pictures and plants!

Here Cyclamen graecum has started to flower after the first rain of the season:

[John]

Many of the C. graecum here are now past their best and the first of the Galanthus reginae-olgae is going over. We are in a heat wave though!

[HansA]

Great plants John and Miriam!

Hans do your dark C. hederifolium come well from seed and true to colour?

Those are the first flowers of the plants, received the seeds from Jan Bravenboer in 2009. Would think there are about 10 percent of intense coloured plants (which vary) while the other are perhaps a bit darker than "normal", but not all flowered so far. Selected 3 out of the batch and grow them now isolated from the other.

[HansA]

I agree with John - C. rohlfsianum flowers are beautiful - but leafs are really spectacular - every plant is different. Here the first plant in leave, picture taken only a few days after posting the same situation in reply 42 and a bit darker flowering plant.

[Alisdair]

Really natural look for that C. rohlfsianum, Hans, smashing! I never managed to keep the species going for more than a few years, under glass in the UK, and console myself that my very few plants came from the stock originally imported by Col. "Jimmy" Mars, that great cyclamenophile, which never seemed particularly robust. Seeing your plants, and John's, looking so splendid, I'm not inclined to try again myself!

[John]

Why don't you try them in Greece Alisdair?

[JTh]

Cyclamen hederifolium were out in Halkidiki as well last week, after the heavy rain, but I have never seen any with the dark colour shown in Hans' photos; a few may be pink, but they are mostly nearly white, except for the markings. I find it difficult to photograph them, the nicest ones are always hiding under some thorny bushes.

[John]

Here's a sub zero picture of C. hederifolium. We mustn't forget that even though much of the Mediterranean has a mild climate frosts are far from unknown. I collected seed off Ranunculus asiaticus from Karpathos at sea level and for years Balckthorn Nursery sold this collection which was relatively frost hardy despite it's frost free origins.

[Alisdair]

Rather off-topic, but John, you've touched on a subject dear to Jorun's heart - the fact that areas in the Mediterranean basin, even quite close to the sea, may be at an altitude where even quite sharp and prolonged frosts are likely. Jorun I think would claim that these areas are still "mediterranean", whereas some purists would say that the mediterranean-climate area had given way to a different ecotype at a certain altitude there and therefore couldn't be called "mediterranean".
A reminder that this forum is a very broad church, of course, so whatever your views on where "mediterranean" stops and starts, we're all always interested!