[Alisdair]

Good point, John!

[jo]

I'm off to the Cevennes in March,  hopefully to photograph C balearicum.  Anyone got any good places I should look ?

[Alisdair]

As C. balearicum can't be that common in the Cevennes, I'd suggest that anyone who does know of likely sites emails Jo privately. Giving locations openly here on the forum would be too helpful to the dreaded plant-diggers!
Hope you do find some, Jo - and hope to see some photos here.
Yesterday Helena and I went further down the Mani, to the site of some very late-flowering C. hederifolium (the sort that has recently been called crassifolium) - will post a photo when I get back to UK in Feb.

[ezeiza]

"emails Jo privately. Giving locations openly here on the forum would be too helpful to the dreaded plant-diggers!"

Wow! I love this fabulous forum more and more every time! To think that in other web forums intendedly minimize the subject of poaching. Not to mention when they evidently take sides explaining the virtues of "plant introduction" by scrupleless merchants.

[Alisdair]

This picture was taken of a Cyclamen hederifolium in the very late-flowering population in Mani on the Greek Peloponnese while we were there in late January this year. It was one of the last still to be in full flower, and was going over when we saw it on 1 February. The last to flower in our own garden there lost its final flower right at the end of January.

[John]

Another memory of fast growth in Cyclamen. I potted up a seedling of Cyclamen hederifolium Apollo Series soon after germination and to my surprise it refused to go dormant so I kept potting it on. At the end of twelve months it had filled a pot around 20 cm wide with a complete cover of foliage. This is the only time this has happened though I have had similar experiences with other plants. Lilium formosanum from germinating to flower in 3 months. If only everything was so obliging!

[Alisdair]

I have split off John's and Alberto's very interesting comments and advice on compost and feeding, started here, to a new topic which you can see by clicking on its name here, Compost for bulbs.

[jo]

I have just had a question about virus in Cyclamen coum.  A picture of a very unusually marked coum has been posted on the Scottish Rock gdn forum.

Here is the link,  what does anyone else think ?   
 Strange plant here : http://www.srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=8335.msg232815#msg232815

[John]

Hi Jo, interesting and I would say that it is not probably virused and it also looks like the type of variegation that will come true from seed.

[JTh]

Do you find this type of marking/variegation attractive?

[John]

I will assume from your question that you do not! I find it interesting especially if it comes true from seed which marginal variegation will not. I also suspect that it would be a hit in Japan where variegation is, I believe, quite popular.

[JTh]

You are right, John, I find them rather sickly looking and not attractive at all.

[Alisdair]

Here's what happened when Helena put aside a heap of dormant baby Cyclamen hederifolium tubers, covered them with grit to keep them fairly moist until she dealt with them - then more or less forgot about them:

[John]

You could put that on your door at Christmas!

[anita]

I've never been to Southern Europe and what I know of Cyclamen growing in the wild I've gleaned from books such as John Fielding's Flora of Crete (which has some great in situ pics thanks!). So planting a corm of C. graecum into the garden in Adelaide was a bit of an educated guess. I planted it in full sun, which I'd read was what it needed in English gardening books... for three years it just hung in there not looking too happy. Then I saw John's book...and those plants in situ.. light bulb moment... I shifted the suffering plant to the back garden into dappled sun at the top of a low retaining wall.. next year there were a few more leaves and the plant was definitely happier. This year when the rest of the autumnal bulbs started to move I thought I'd see how little graecum was faring... and to my delight - there was a FLOWER!. Thanks John for the insight... Australia's sun... is different and what might suit sun in the UK is likely to prefer a little dappled shade in Aus, as they seem to in Crete. What's even better is that I was so certain the C. graecum could succeed here that I bought seed two years ago hoping to get more plants... so I've now got three potfuls of seedlings coming on... a few more plants will join this lonely soul next year.