Greeks Bearing Flowers

-
It's Cyclamen Time in the greenhouse, and my collection, all started from seed in 2006, have matured into spectacular flowering machines. Presently, the species that are Fall flowering are the centre of attention, they are mostly C. hederifolium, but also C. mirabile, C. cilicium and C. alpinum. The favourite, at the moment, is C. graecum: they are not as large as their cousins as I was slow to realize the beauty of this species, and as a result they remained growing congested in a single pot before potting them up separately in 2010. Since then they have grown into lovely plants and the four that I selected as specimen plants finally bloomed for the first time this year. One of "The Greeks" has a beautiful dark pink flower, but it's the foliage that is the most striking thing about this species; I wish my photography could do them justice, and I hope these pictures will give some idea of the loveliness of this species.
A long shot of my little greenhouse, with the Cyclamen taking over most of the bench space.

The four C. graecum.
The best of the flowers on these plants
Foliage of the same plant.
Foliage of the second plant.
Foliage of the third plant.
Foliage of the fourth plant.

Comments

Jean Campbell said…
What a successful year you've had! I didn't realize the flowers came ahead of the leaves, only having seen cyclamen in a nursery, fully grown.
October 5, 2012 at 6:44 PM
Barry Parker said…
Hello Aaron and NellJean,

Thanks for your comments. Since you wrote, I've edited this post to show better pics of the foliage. Hope you enjoy these too.
October 7, 2012 at 9:42 AM
Melanie J Watts said…
It's interesting how their foliage all looks so different. Reading that you grew them from seed makes me excited to try too. Where did you buy the seed?
October 11, 2012 at 8:04 AM
Barry Parker said…
Hi Melanie,

That's the exciting thing about all the Cyclamen species, they are all unique and the variance seems endless. I got my seed from the Cyclamen Society in the UK. They have a very good seed exchange at a very reasonable cost, Certainly worth joining for this alone.
October 11, 2012 at 8:49 AM
Melanie J Watts said…
Thanks Barry. I'll look into it.
October 13, 2012 at 10:23 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sidewalks of San Francisco

-
Image
For a person visiting San Francisco from "The Great White North", one is struck not only the weather but also by the plant life that flourishes in this ideal mediterranean climate. I've just returned from a week in this lovely city, and again I was impressed by the quality, variety and creativity of gardening that I found there. In this post I am paying particular attention to the gardens I found in the front gardens which often  overflowed onto the sidewalks and boulevards. Many of the plants that I saw there are the same that I grow outdoors and have to move indoors from November to April. And since the San Francisco plants are grown in the ground they are huge compared to my container grown collection.
Read more

Plants at My Front Door

-
Image
Last year I had a rather autocratic message from the UK suggesting that my love of limey, gold and chartreuse plants could lead me down the path to "brassy" tastelessness. I bristled at this, but tried to ascertain whether this was a fair comment. My critic, perhaps had not taken into account that I live in a completely different environment from her, and that the quality of light and extremes of climate affect our reaction to colour in a different way. In our hot, humid summers and brilliant sunshine, I find that these yellow/greens are actually cooling and rather than being strident, are very subdued and complimentary to other colours in the garden. Well, judge for yourself. I'm showing here an arrangement of plants at my front door, which I find very pleasing, A cooling vignette in the last few days of a very hot summer. Plants at my front door. Durantia, Angelonia 'Purple Stripe' and purple Callibrachoa. Coleus 'Fishnet Stockings...
Read more
-
Image
Many succulents have bloomed for me this year, perhaps this is not so remarkable in more temperate climates, but here in Montréal these plants have to be wintered over indoors and live a life with considerable human intervention. This I believe might discourage their normal flowering cycle. So for whatever reason, this has been a bumper year for flowers on plants that I grow mainly for their foliage. The most recent to bloom is  Crassula rupestris sap. marnieriana, it has curiously beautiful foliage that forms chains of compact succulent leaves that take on the apperience of a bucket of worms as they snake out of their pot.
Read more