Hardy Cyclamen

It’s hard to believe it’s the time to start thinking about the autumn and winter in the garden when it feels as if summer hasn’t even arrived yet. However, now is the time to start planning ahead to ensure that as summer fades the garden stays alive with colour for the darker months ahead. There are few better ways to do this than with the exciting range of mini, winter tolerant cyclamen, which when given the right conditions will flower right through to welcome in the following spring.

There are many mini cyclamen now in the market place, many of which boast unusual flower colours and attractive foliage. The best in my opinion is Cyclamen Silverado. This is a long established variety and as such, has been improved to give excellent weather tolerance and a long flowering season. Its best feature however is the highly decorative foliage, which is strongly marbled in greens and greys and shot through with silver.

Mini cyclamen are quite tricky from seed as to get a uniform batch of plants, they need specific conditions at the point of germination, so I would whole-heartedly recommend letting a specialist nursery do the seed bit, and start with young plants such as being offered here.

Cyclamen are easy to grow as long as some basic rules are followed, and now’s the time to get started! Firstly plan ahead and get your orders in early, as that way you will guarantee to get your plants. On arrival make sure the plants are unpacked and set down somewhere outside and out of direct sunlight. Cyclamen are naturally woodland plants from the Eastern Mediterranean and therefore prefer a light shade and lower humidity. Keeping them humid will encourage the leaves to stretch up and spoil the plant habit.

Cyclamen Silverado does best in planters, tubs and baskets in free draining compost where the raised height will bring them closer to the eye so the attractive foliage can be seen. When planting ensure the corm at the base of the plant is sitting on the compost surface and is not buried, as deep planting can lead to humidity in the base of the plant resulting in grey mould (Botrytis) infecting and killing the plant. They look good either planted en masse on their own or in mixed plantings with bulbs such as Narcissus ‘Tête-à-Tête’, snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis), small shrubs including Skimmia japonica ‘Rubella’ and grasses such as Carex ‘Comans Bronze’, Carex ‘Frosted Curls and Festuca glauca ‘Azurit’ or ‘Blue Fox’ as the foliage texture and colour provides a good backdrop.

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