{"id":3228,"date":"2020-11-09T08:14:34","date_gmt":"2020-11-09T16:14:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=3228"},"modified":"2020-11-09T08:14:34","modified_gmt":"2020-11-09T16:14:34","slug":"cyclamen-rejuvenation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/cyclamen-rejuvenation\/","title":{"rendered":"Cyclamen Rejuvenation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cyclamen<\/a>Garden c<\/strong>yclamen, sometimes known as hardy cyclamen, are subtle plants and easy to forget when they are not in leaf or flower.\u00a0 I forgot mine completely until I noticed that they hadn\u2019t appeared this year.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what happened, but I blame the squirrels who have rampaged through the garden, digging with impunity and abandon.<\/p>\n

Now that the fall bulb shipment has arrived, I can rectify the situation.<\/p>\n

Cyclamen flowers are as beautiful and delicate as the butterflies they resemble, floating close to the ground in the garden and often popping into view when you are looking at or for something else.\u00a0 For those who don\u2019t know them, the little garden plants are the smaller relations of the florists\u2019 cyclamen\u2014Cyclamen persicum\u2014that are sold as potted plants for winter display. \u00a0The key recognition elements are the same, with the most prominent being single, five-petaled flowers that bloom at the tops of the stalks. Those petals are either reflexed or held upright, depending on the species or variety, and the overall flower configuration is orchid or butterfly-like.\u00a0 The colors run to shades of white, pink or red.<\/p>\n

In both florists\u2019 and garden varieties, the foliage is as beautiful as the flowers. The ivy-leafed cyclamen\u2014Cyclamen hederifolium\u2014have, as the name suggests, leaves that are shaped like those of English ivy. \u00a0They are marked and marbled with gray-green and silver, making a healthy clump look like a miraculously woven damask cloth. \u00a0The leaves appear after the flowers, prolonging the season of interest.<\/p>\n

All cyclamen are members of the primrose family.\u00a0 Garden varieties have long inspired plaudits from all manner of garden pundits. \u00a0In her book, The Little Bulbs<\/em>, the great twentieth century American garden writer Elizabeth Lawrence rhapsodized over \u201cthe frail elegance of these tiny flowers.\u201d\u009dHer older contemporary, English garden writer E.A. Bowles, wrote in My Garden in Autumn and Winter<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cI have an insatiable desire for Cyclamens, and could never have too many, for I know of no other plant that will turn patches of dust under thick trees into stretches of beauty so permanently and thoroughly.\u201d\u009d<\/em><\/p>\n

Cyclamen are the ultimate good mixers, with a diminutive size that allows them to fit into almost all garden situations. \u00a0English garden writer and poet Vita Sackville-West planted them in her thyme lawn, which sounds lovely, but is a little surprising, as thyme is a sun lover and cyclamen is generally more partial to dry shade.\u00a0 Perhaps, though, Vita\u2019s cyclamen were on the shady edges of the Sissinghurst thyme lawn. In non-Sissinghurst gardens, the little bulbs might easily fit into pockets under trees \u00e0 la E.A Bowles, or at the feet of shrubs in semi-shaded areas.\u00a0 They are also perfect for container culture, combined with other plants for four-season interest. \u00a0In short, anyone who has dirt can have cyclamens.<\/p>\n

My new ivy-leafed cyclamen, which will go into my garden in a matter of days, have been cultivated and documented for centuries.\u00a0 Maggie Campbell-Culver, in her wonderful book, The Origin of Plants<\/em>, notes that Cyclamen hederifolium was introduced in England in 1597, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and the theatrical era of William Shakespeare. \u00a0It became known as \u201csow bread,\u201d an extremely ugly name for such a beautiful plant.<\/p>\n

According to students of plant lore, the cyclamen corms or swollen underground roots resembled small loaves and were much sought after by hungry Elizabethan pigs.\u00a0 Notwithstanding the efforts of those swine, cyclamen prospered in English gardens and eventually made their way to America.\u00a0 Early Americans also had pigs, of course, but apparently cyclamen survived and prospered here anyway.<\/p>\n

People bitten by the cyclamen \u201cbug\u201d may also plant Cyclamen coum, another late fall bloomer with a somewhat greater color range than the ivy-leafed species. Coum also thrives in dry shade and bears the distinctive mottled foliage.\u00a0 West Virginia plantsman Barry Glick, of Sunshine Farm and Gardens, prefers it to ivy-leafed cyclamen for its expanded color and hardiness range. \u00a0Since the world is always in need of good plants, my advice is to grow both types.<\/p>\n

The great southern gardener, Nancy Goodwin, made cyclamen a specialty decades ago and started a nursery to get various seed-grown species and varieties out to the public.\u00a0 Sadly, her nursery, Montrose, is gone, but she still grows cyclamen and an array of other interesting plants.\u00a0 Many of her treasures are now offered by North Carolina\u2019s Plant Delights Nursery, run by a wonderful, highly idiosyncratic plantsman named Tony Avent.<\/p>\n

Gardeners frequently grouse about dry shade. Cyclamens flourish under those conditions and absolutely abhor soggy soil, which fosters root rot. Combine them with other shade lovers like hellebores and various types of lamium. \u00a0If you have room, interplant the cyclamen with small varieties of daffodils and grape hyacinths, which bloom just as cyclamen is going into its dormant phase.<\/p>\n

Most garden centers and nurseries carry few, if any, cyclamen. However, they are readily available online.\u00a0 Order cyclamen coum and other types from Sunshine Farm and Gardens, 696 Glicks Rd, Renick, WV 24966, (304) 497-2208, www.sunfarm.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Order an array of cyclamen from Plant Delights Nursery, Plant Delights Nursery, Inc., 9241 Sauls Road, Raleigh, NC 27603, (919)772-.4794; www.plantdelights.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Garden cyclamen, sometimes known as hardy cyclamen, are subtle plants and easy to forget when they are not in leaf or flower.\u00a0 I forgot mine completely until I noticed that they hadn\u2019t appeared this year.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what happened, but I blame the squirrels who have rampaged through the garden, digging with impunity and … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,2,5],"tags":[285,2401,287,649,2400,1227,284,2403,2402],"class_list":["post-3228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-winter","tag-cyclamen","tag-cyclamen-cour","tag-cyclamen-hederifolium","tag-decorative-leaves","tag-garden-cyclamen","tag-ground-covers","tag-how-to-grow-hardy-cyclamen","tag-montrose","tag-spring-blooming-bulbs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3230,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3228\/revisions\/3230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}