14-03-2003, 03:20 AM
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Hardy cyclamen?
In article ,
(Sed5555) wrote:
I saw a reference book in the bookstore an hour ago, and it claimed
that cyclamen is winter hardy to zone 3
I don't know about zone 3, but I grow them here in zone 4/5. Many species of
hardy cyclamen are hardy to -10 to -20 degrees:
Cyclamen coum, Cyclamen hederifolium,
Cyclamen pseudibericum, Cyclamen purpurascens. They come in shades of white,
pink, and lavender. Some bloom in spring, but most in late summer to early
fall.
sed5555
Interesting. Here they majority are winter-bloomers. I'd wondered when
would be their bloom time in vastly colder zones; Grey-Wilson speaks of
the super cold-hardiness especially of C. hederifolium, but doesn't ammend
his British bloom time assessments for the colder zones. Here in Zone 8,
C. coum sometimes blooms twice so it's autumn AND late winter. C.
hederofolium is Aug-Nov but especially in September, most of the others at
some point between December through March, strongest Feb-March, with
leaves throughout spring & MAYBE into part of summer if protected, but by
high summer they're all 'em totally gone, not a hint they're there (except
for that bright red small-bloom C. persicum which last year bloomed May
all through summer, though they're not supposed to; I'm waiting to see if
it follows that incorrect schedule this year too). I was looking at an
Ausy website & gosh were those bloom times wrong; it must be annoying to
Aussy gardeners to sometimes have to rely on books from the northern
hemisphere.
-paghat the ratgirl
--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/
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