On Wed, 12 Mar 2003 18:17:59 +0000, Kay Easton
wrotc:


I thought of replying and didn't, on the grounds that 'winter flowering
cyclamen' meant that he probably had got some of those small-flowered
cyclamen hybrids which almost cope with a british winter in a warm city
centre, and which first appeared only a few years ago and are now a
staple feature of commercial window box displays. Poor chap hasn't much
chance, as the GCs only ever label them 'winter flowering cyclamen', and
I guess to all but the most enthusiastic gardener, one cyclamen looks
much like another.

In passing .. Rarepants have something to say about the Cyclamens
you buy in GC's. :-

Even without the moral objections, wild dug cyclamen rarely do well in
gardens. They have been dug up in perhaps February and transported
around in a dry state, by donkey and lorry, until they arrive in you
local chain store or garden centre. They finally reach the gardener in
maybe October, having been dry all of the time that they have been
shipped around Europe. They rarely thrive, usually struggle and
eventually fade. Wild cyclamen are still much in evidence in many
garden centres and shops in the UK and probably elsewhere.

Bulb nurserymen, the target of much misplaced venom have been
exemplary and most, if not all, offer propagated plants. The Multiples
and chain stores are the overlooked villains of the situation and are
still selling wild corms. If I name names they will probably sue me,
but do have a careful look at any cyclamen in polythene bags hanging
on racks in your local DIY chain store or garden centre. As recently
as September 2001 I was still able to find irregular, pock and stone
marked cyclamen, 14cm in diameter and clearly wild-dug, in a major
garden centre some 10 miles from Wrexham.

Hussein

Grow a little garden