Since my wife passed away some three summers ago I haven't done anything
to the flower borders that she used to tend apart from just keeping the
grass down.

Yesterday I thought I'd better do something about cleaning up one of the
flower beds and making it look presentable. Apart from a whole tangle of
couch root, as I loosened the soil I discovered something which I'd
never seen before.

They look like mushrooms lying on their back (no stalks!) and are black.
From what would have been the dome of the mushroom, which is underneath
there are what look like very fine roots. The largest is five to six
inches in diameter and there are several smaller ones, about two to
three inches in diameter.

I don't remember what was planted there so I don't know quite where to
start looking for an explanation of what these might be. There was no
evidence of recent growth so I assume that, whatever they were, they're
dead. But what were they? Were they a bulb of some sort?

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK

In article ,
Chris Hogg wrote:

Sounds like cyclamen. My mother had one such in her garden. It was,
for a cyclamen corm, huge, but eventually it developed a rot and died.
See https://ibb.co/dWqU5J with the transparent 12" ruler across the
top for scale.

Yes. Most of them aren't very hardy, not because of the cold but the
winter wet. At least several of them have leaves in spring and autumn,
but in summer only if it is fairly wet, and they flower in spring,
autumn or both.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On Thu, 14 Jun 2018 15:02:39 Nick Maclaren wrote:

In article ,
Chris Hogg wrote:

Sounds like cyclamen. My mother had one such in her garden. It was,
for a cyclamen corm, huge, but eventually it developed a rot and died.
See https://ibb.co/dWqU5J with the transparent 12" ruler across the
top for scale.

Yes. Most of them aren't very hardy, not because of the cold but the
winter wet. At least several of them have leaves in spring and autumn,
but in summer only if it is fairly wet, and they flower in spring,
autumn or both.

Thanks, both. Yes, that's more than possible. I do know that my
mother-in-law was fond of cyclamens (the flower border is outside what
was her annex) and it's quite possible that my wife planted it (them?)
out.

I've found a photo of them here and that's exactly what they look like:

https://hardycyclamens.secure.guarde...n-seeds-tubers
..html

I should have paid more attention at the time. Thanks again.

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK