"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...

In article ,
Roger Van Loon writes:
| Nick Maclaren wrote:
|
| From what I understand of where they come from, several species
| (probably including C. coum) are adapted to very poor soils and
| near-waterless summers. I think that the reason they like a lot
| of humus in the UK is for the drainage - with me, they get sand and
| like it!
| Certainly, they estivate quite happily and, if I recall, they are
| fairly common in Crete - where it gets pretty dry in the summer
| by UK standards.
|
| Yes - there are beautiful Cyclamen in Crete, but there's no Cyclamen
| coum there, I think.

Could well be. It is certainly native to a large part of Asia
Minor, most of which has next to no rainfall for several months
in the summer.

For a couple of years now I've been watching some experimental plantings of
Cyclamen here, C.coum in a well drained place where it gets a heavy carpet
of Oak leaves dumped on it every year and C. hederifolium just outside the
drip circle of our big Pinus radiata - they are in almost bone dry acid soil
and subject to a continuous heavy rain of pine needles (failed to grow
anything at all there in the past). Both lots are doing much better than I
predicted and I now intend to do some serious planting in both places. I was
looking at the C. coum this morning and saw lots of seedlings. The best
patch of C. coum last year isn't flowering quite so well this time. In the
light of the previous postings my earlier predictions were obviously too
pessimistic.

Rod