I just put up a page highlighting two patches of Cyclamen coum, he
http://www.paghat.com/cyclamencoum.html
I got a new camera, & these are the very first pictures I ever took with it!

My garden diary includes fragments of potential essays, & some of my
rec.gardens posts which might be worth revising & expanding into articles
someday. One section of the diary has a zillion notes about cyclamens. One
fragment stands alone as a recommendation-piece about the easiest
cyclamens to grow. These notes are already in advanced draft because
they're a revision of something I rough-drafted directly in this newsgroup
some while back. I'm posting these notes below, & hope it will induce
anyone who ever worried cyclamens are too difficult to go out & get some
right away.

CYCLAMEN NOTES: Best For Outside:

Of the most strongly cold-hardy cyclamens, C. hederifolium outdoes them
all, surviving sustained freezing down to minus 22 F. Several others
survive temperatures down to zero F &amp sometimes colder: C. cilicium, C.
coum coum, C. coum caucasicum, C. parviflorum,. & C. purpurascens. Of
these, C. parviflorum is a bit tiny for the garden &amp could be
overwhelmed & crowded out by larger plants, but is otherwise as hardy as
the others.

Essentially only those listed above should be considered guaranteed
successes for outside. But another handful are certainly suited to our
temperate seasons on Puget Sound, though beyond the geographical
boundaries of our micro-climate they could be at risk. These additonal
possibilities for outdoors a C. colchicum, C . coum elegans, C.
intaminatum, C. mirabile, C. pseudibericum, C. repandum repandum &amp C.
trochopteranthum, among which C. repandum repandum would most demand a
little protection in our temperatures. C. intaminatum like C. parviflorum
is so small that it can be overwhelmed by larger plants, so perhaps best
in outdoor containers or areas of only the smallest plants (ours is
outdoors in a miniature raised bed of its own, along with a dwarf
fritillary, F. pudicans, which blooms in March & is only 2" tall).

Finally there is a group of only half-hardy species that will be damaged
if temperatures fall to 25 degrees, but are worth trying up close to the
house for some residual heat, or in covered frames: C. balearicum, C.
creticum, C. graecum, C. libanoticum, C. repandum peloponnesiacum, & C.
repandum rhodense. Of these, C. graecum is most worth attempting in in our
Puget Sound microclimate where the number of days with temperatures in the
20s are very few.

The remaining species barely tolerate even short-term freezes, but due to
hybridizations of florist's cyclamens, a few of the smallest-flowered ones
can unexpectedly survive in gardens, with protection, if temperatures only
rarely fall to 32 degrees F. The wild form of C. persicum from which
gaudy Florist's Cyclamens are derived is not in its natural state quite so
fragile. I have some successful patches of the species form of C. persicum
doing fine outdoors (very protected by eaves) plus a brilliantly red
small-flowered C. persicum "Mother's Day" which had no problem through its
first winter in a fairly exposed area under the Choke Cherry, though it is
too soon to tell if it will really ever spread out as successfully as the
legitimately cold-hardy varieties do.

By &amp large the reason so many people falsely believe all cyclamens are
delicate is because they obtained as a gift or as an unplanned purchase
some random super-flowery florist's cyclamen which are sold even in
grocery stores during the winter holidays. Even as houseplants these take
considerable expertise to preserve, &amp the usual experience with them is
they fade out within a few weeks of purchase & never again look nice.
Without some expertise these should just not be obtained, but neither
should a bad experience with them permit the assumption that all cyclamens
are difficult.

The two that are the most often offered are the two that are almost
impossible to fail with: C. coum &amp C. hederifolium. There are so many
leaf-variants of C. coum &amp slight color variants for the flowers, that
growing nothing but this one species can be arranged with some sense of
variety. I have one that has a completely silver leaf, otherwise unmarked,
it seems flowery even when not in bloom, & you'd be hard-pressed to
realize it is the same species as a "patterned-leaf" variety that has what
looks like the silhouette of an arrowhead or evergreen green at the center
of each mottled leaf. I would recommend everyone begin with C. coum & C.
hederofolium, & when these are soon obvious successes, embolden yourself
to try some of the rarer offerings. Don't buy dried tubors but get young
potted seed-grown specimens, they'll do better, & you'll be able to select
choice leaf-patterns. I planted several large dried tubors believing
they'd have a head-start on two-year-old seedlings, but turns out the
seedlings develop faster, as the tubors are exceedingly stressed from
being dug up, root-shaved, & dried, & some never recover, so I will never
get packaged tubors again (not least because it turns out many of them are
stripped from the wild).

CYCLAMEN NOTES: Named Cyclamens in the garden:

Cyclamen coum "Patterned leaf Pink"
Cyclamen coum "Silver-leafed Pink"
Cyclamen coum "BSBE 518" from the Pewter Group
Cyclamen coum "Tilebarn Elizabeth"
Cyclamen coum "Shell"
Cyclamen coum "Rose"
Cyclamen cyprium
Cyclamen graecum subs graecum
Cyclamen hederifolium (one silver-mottled, one pattern-mottled, from Steve
Martin's Woodland Gardens)
Cyclamen hederifolium "Silver-leafed Bowles Apollo Group"
Cyclamen intaminatum
Cyclamen persicum, wild forms from dried tubors
Cyclamen persicum "Mother's Day Red"
Cyclamen trochopteranthum

There is no such thing as too many cyclamens.

-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/

I don't know the scientific name of what I have. They are called fall
cyclamen. I heard that they would spread so I put in 5 bulbs here and 5 bulbs
there.

Well, they make me laugh. These delicate looking tiny plants don't look like
they should be there in the fall. They are little patches of pink fairy
flowers as Mad would call them.

Marilyn in Ohio

In article ,
(Allview) wrote:

I don't know the scientific name of what I have. They are called fall
cyclamen. I heard that they would spread so I put in 5 bulbs here and 5 bulbs
there.

Well, they make me laugh. These delicate looking tiny plants don't look like
they should be there in the fall. They are little patches of pink fairy
flowers as Mad would call them.

Marilyn in Ohio

I'm sure you have Cyclamen hederifolium, the best & toughest autumn
bloomer. Its leaves are much more pointed & arrow-like than other
cyclamens (others are either oval or scalloped oval), & always very
ornately mottled.

-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/

Follow Up Thanks for list and info! Takes away some of the mystery
ofCyclamen growing. I have never had any luck even keeping a bought
one.Will have another go now though!

I just put up a page highlighting two patches of Cyclamen coum, he
http://www.paghat.com/cyclamencoum.html
I got a new camera, & these are the very first pictures I ever took
with it!

--
Paul.Cheltenham,England.