On 15/03/2014 19:13, Bob Hobden wrote:
"Jeff Layman" wrote
stuart noble wrote:
The dozen or so I have in pots and troughs have been sensational this
winter, so how do I keep them over summer? I don't really have room to
plant them out but, if I put them in a shady part of the garden, are
they likely to survive? Should I re-pot perhaps? Any advice appreciated

Well, it depends what cyclamen you are talking about. The blousy ones
you find in pots in the greenhouse section of garden centres will
often suffer if exposed to frost. However, most of the species (and
their cultivars) are quite hardy and are some of the best plants for
dry shade - particularly Cyclamen hederifolium. So if you have a dry,
shady area (under evergreens, for example), you will often find that
cyclamens do well there when little else will even survive, let alone
flower. If you can't plant them out, just put the pots there. I let
them dry out over summer; in fact, if you let them get too wet for too
long, they will often start to rot.


Dry shade is the accepted position for them. However, because we had a
large tree cut down the ones I planted under it are now in full sun in
our open front south facing garden and they haven't read the book. They
get baked every summer and are gradually taking over the garden even
seeding in the grass, and the block paving, there must be hundreds of
little seedlings out there at the moment everywhere you look. I will
have to do something eventually.

So it sounds like they don't mind full sun, and they have certainly
flourished in the wettest winter on record. Perhaps "the book" should be
rewritten :-) I planted mine in leaf mould this time round and it's
amazing how quickly it drains. Maybe that's the key but, as Jeff says,
the blousy ones have had no frost to cope with...so far...