Bought a pack of sorry looking Cyclamen 'silver mixed' from Homebase a
month or so ago (felt sorry for them). They have now perked up but I
don't know where to plant them.

Question: Are they hardy?

The only truly hardy Cyclamen are Cc.coum and hederifolium. The former flowers from now onwards and the latter from August. In warmer places C. repandum will survive outside.
Most of the ones in flower now, on sale in big outlets are forms of C persicum which is tender, dry it will stand a few degrees of frost, but not happy about it.

In article ,
Owdboggy wrote:
Compo in Caithness;909777 Wrote:

Bought a pack of sorry looking Cyclamen 'silver mixed' from Homebase a
month or so ago (felt sorry for them). They have now perked up but I
don't know where to plant them.

Question: Are they hardy?

The only truly hardy Cyclamen are Cc.coum and hederifolium. The former
flowers from now onwards and the latter from August. In warmer places C.
repandum will survive outside.

What about C. europaeum? :-)

C. coum (and probably C. hederifolium) should be planted in a dry
spot, preferably under evergreen trees or shrubs on the rain
shadow of the eaves. They loathe waterlogging and don't handle
competition well, but will thrive where few other plants will even
survive. Given the right conditions, C. coum will take down to -15
Celsius, and perhaps lower.

Most of the ones in flower now, on sale in big outlets are forms of C
persicum which is tender, dry it will stand a few degrees of frost, but
not happy about it.

And it's killed by more than a few degrees.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

In article ,
Compo in Caithness wrote:

Thanks Nick. The plants came from Homebase so they were not labelled
properly - 'Cyclamen silver mixed' does not really tell me much. I
have done a bit of looking about and I think they are Cyclamen coum
silver and if this is the case then from the information in your post
I reckon they'll do just fine in my alpine section of the polytunnel
(Far north of Scotland).

Should do. Cambridge isn't as cold as Caithness, but mine have thrived
for several decades at least, and there have been some pretty bitter
frosts in that time. When I moved in, there were a few plants under
a conifer; I encouraged them and, when we removed the conifer, I put
them under the eaves (facing north-east). They have naturalised into
a carpet!


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On Jan 11, 2:45*pm, wrote:
In article ,

Owdboggy wrote:
Compo in Caithness;909777 Wrote:

Bought a pack of sorry looking Cyclamen 'silver mixed' from Homebase a
month or so ago (felt sorry for them). *They have now perked up but I
don't know where to plant them.

Question: Are they hardy?

The only truly hardy Cyclamen are Cc.coum and hederifolium. The former
flowers from now onwards and the latter from August. In warmer places C.
repandum will survive outside.

What about C. europaeum? :-)

C. coum (and probably C. hederifolium) should be planted in a dry
spot, preferably under evergreen trees or shrubs on the rain
shadow of the eaves. *They loathe waterlogging and don't handle
competition well, but will thrive where few other plants will even
survive. *Given the right conditions, C. coum will take down to -15
Celsius, and perhaps lower.

Most of the ones in flower now, on sale in big outlets are forms of C
persicum which is tender, dry it will stand a few degrees of frost, but
not happy about it.

And it's killed by more than a few degrees.

Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Thanks Nick. The plants came from Homebase so they were not labelled
properly - 'Cyclamen silver mixed' does not really tell me much. I
have done a bit of looking about and I think they are Cyclamen coum
silver and if this is the case then from the information in your post
I reckon they'll do just fine in my alpine section of the polytunnel
(Far north of Scotland).

On Jan 11, 4:30*pm, Compo in Caithness
wrote:
On Jan 11, 2:45*pm, wrote:









In article ,

Owdboggy wrote:
Compo in Caithness;909777 Wrote:

Bought a pack of sorry looking Cyclamen 'silver mixed' from Homebase a
month or so ago (felt sorry for them). *They have now perked up but I
don't know where to plant them.

Question: Are they hardy?

The only truly hardy Cyclamen are Cc.coum and hederifolium. The former
flowers from now onwards and the latter from August. In warmer places C.
repandum will survive outside.

What about C. europaeum? :-)

C. coum (and probably C. hederifolium) should be planted in a dry
spot, preferably under evergreen trees or shrubs on the rain
shadow of the eaves. *They loathe waterlogging and don't handle
competition well, but will thrive where few other plants will even
survive. *Given the right conditions, C. coum will take down to -15
Celsius, and perhaps lower.

Most of the ones in flower now, on sale in big outlets are forms of C
persicum which is tender, dry it will stand a few degrees of frost, but
not happy about it.

And it's killed by more than a few degrees.

Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Thanks Nick. *The plants came from Homebase so they were not labelled
properly - 'Cyclamen silver mixed' does not really tell me much. *I
have done a bit of looking about and I think they are Cyclamen coum
silver and if this is the case then from the information in your post
I reckon they'll do just fine in my alpine section of the polytunnel
(Far north of Scotland).

Thanks also to Owdboggy for similar gen.

On Jan 11, 4:00*pm, wrote:
In article ,
Compo in Caithness wrote:



Thanks Nick. *The plants came from Homebase so they were not labelled
properly - 'Cyclamen silver mixed' does not really tell me much. *I
have done a bit of looking about and I think they are Cyclamen coum
silver and if this is the case then from the information in your post
I reckon they'll do just fine in my alpine section of the polytunnel
(Far north of Scotland).

Should do. *Cambridge isn't as cold as Caithness, but mine have thrived
for several decades at least, and there have been some pretty bitter
frosts in that time. *When I moved in, there were a few plants under
a conifer; I encouraged them and, when we removed the conifer, I put
them under the eaves (facing north-east). *They have naturalised into
a carpet!

Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

My experience is that C. coum naturalises significantly better than C.
hederifolium.
If Compo has found some form of C. coum in one of the DIY sheds he's
lucky indeed.

Rod

My experience is the opposite - C coum dwindles away whereas C hederifolium seeds itself happily and gets bigger every year. I think it's because my classic "bare ground under tree", while dry most of the time, gets flooded to a depth of 6 inches about 6 times a year, and I think C coum is less tolerant of the occasional drowning.

C. europeaum is a discontinued name for either C purpurascens (which is not hardy) and C.repandum forms.
Must be down to situation then. We find both Cc coum and hederifolium flourish almost every where in this garden, even in the lawn and on the roadside verge outside. They do not even seem to mind being run over with the lawn mower. Indeed both of them are becoming pests in parts of the garden.
I cannot see Homebase selling C.coum Silver leaf in trays. They are more often sold by specialist growers at an inflated price too.

In article ,
Owdboggy wrote:

C. europeaum is a discontinued name for either C purpurascens (which is
not hardy) and C.repandum forms.

It's certainly not hardy in Caithness, I agree! But, given that it
has naturalised in a dozen or so locations in England and Wales,
there is a sense in which it has to be hardy.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

In article , writes
In article ,
Owdboggy wrote:

C. europeaum is a discontinued name for either C purpurascens (which is
not hardy) and C.repandum forms.

It's certainly not hardy in Caithness, I agree! But, given that it
has naturalised in a dozen or so locations in England and Wales,
there is a sense in which it has to be hardy.

In the autumn I planted C purpurascens, bought from an expert at the
local Hardy Plant Society who told me to treat it like C hederifolium
but moister in summer. It looks perfectly healthy after moderate frosts
and a couple of inches of snow.
--
Sue ]

Well I have planted purpurascens and cyprium and mirabile outside here in various locations in the garden, none of them have survived.

Back to the op:

Bought a pack of sorry looking Cyclamen 'silver mixed' from Homebase a
month or so ago (felt sorry for them). *They have now perked up but I
don't know where to plant them.
Question: Are they hardy?

These have done the rounds in most of the sheds and garden centres.
It is the 'Silverado' strain derived mainly from Cyclamen persicum,
but there's also some hederifolium (I think) in its background, which
gives the foliage colour and slightly increased cold tolerance. I
have several outside that withstood last winter and the most recent
cold spates and are still flowering. Ideally they should be grown in
a frost free spot and brought on to a cool, bright windowsill indoors
for flowering. However mine took a couple of -5.7C hits and numerous
less severe sub-zero nights so you can read into that what you
will.

"Dave Poole" wrote in message
...
Back to the op:

Bought a pack of sorry looking Cyclamen 'silver mixed' from Homebase a
month or so ago (felt sorry for them). They have now perked up but I
don't know where to plant them.
Question: Are they hardy?

These have done the rounds in most of the sheds and garden centres.
It is the 'Silverado' strain derived mainly from Cyclamen persicum,
but there's also some hederifolium (I think) in its background, which
gives the foliage colour and slightly increased cold tolerance. I
have several outside that withstood last winter and the most recent
cold spates and are still flowering. Ideally they should be grown in
a frost free spot and brought on to a cool, bright windowsill indoors
for flowering. However mine took a couple of -5.7C hits and numerous
less severe sub-zero nights so you can read into that what you
will.

.................................................. ............................................

So have ours AND escaped into the gravel beds and are flowering!!

Mike


--

....................................
Don't take life too seriously, you'll never get out alive
....................................

In article ,
Darkside wrote:

What's your soil like? I think that is more important to hardy Cyclamen
than details of moisture and cover. C purpurascens is a limestone plant
so if you have an acid soil it won't like you. I'm afraid the others
aren't in my wild flower book!

Grrk. I don't think that's it for any cyclamen. I have seen them
growing happily in the mould under an ancient fir tree, and I am
pretty sure that was very acid. What I think that most of them
need is drainage which, in the UK, is correlated with alkalinity.

C. purpurascens may be an exception, but I suspect not. However,
I don't know.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.