On Thu, 13 Mar 2003 01:39:02 +0000, Hussein M. wrote:

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.

Try potting wild-collected cyclamen tubers in *coarse* sand using
fairly deep pots and parking them in a sheltered coldframe out of
direct sun. The tubers *will* revive if you give them half a
chance, though it may take two years (or even longer) before
growth is strong enough to put them into the garden.

Even better than pots full of sand would be a bulb crate full of
sand, and even better than that a coldframe with about 6" of sand
in the bottom.

Fine sand or sand that has a lot of silt in it, tends to be too
soggy. The idea is that one keeps the injured tuber moist, not
wet, in an environment where they are not exposed to soil-borne
pathogens.

--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada