Topic: Cyclamen

[wahaj]

Hi,

I've bought some cyclamen seeds. well 12 seeds in the pack to be precise. how rude!

anyway....it tells me how and when to sow them...but how long does it take for it to flower?

[Robert_Brenchley]

A couple of years.

[muddy boots]

I tried growing the coums from seed ages ago without any success whatsoever.  Any tips on germinating Robert?  Really love those tiny little ones which seem to love shady places.  :-\

[Robert_Brenchley]

Fresh seed planted as soon as it's ripe! Hederifolium seedlings come up all round my plants. It probably doesn't like being dried out, like so many seeds.

[wahaj]

oh ok...so if i sow them now, i should hopefully have some in autumn 2008?

thanks :)

[froglets]

You will get a few tiny leaves next year, but as they're so pretty, I'd call that a bonus

[Robert_Brenchley]

Put it straight in and see what happens. It depends how it's been treated and how old it is; I had some tree paeony seed, another seed which needs prompt planting, in the depths of last winter, and it's producing roots now, so all isn't necessarily lost if it doesn't get planted straight away.

All cyclamens have the same strategy for their seed; it ripens almost a year after flowering, just before the plant flowers again. The old flower stem coils down so the seed pod is at ground level before it opens. The seeds are coated with sweet mucus, and are carried off and spread by ants.

[wahaj]

You will get a few tiny leaves next year, but as they're so pretty, I'd call that a bonus

aww ok...i bet they'll look cute under my cherry tree.

[calendula]

yes they are slow starters but once they get going..... :)

[Robert_Brenchley]

A year after they start blooming, you can take the seed and start a new lot. Hederifolium self-seeds so well it's probably not worth bothering, but some of the others don't do it so easily.

[fluffygrue]

..alternatively, have a look in your local B&Q - ours were selling the 6 packs of cyclamen for £1, were £5. I love bargain hunting. :)

[Palustris]

Take care buying dried corms, they do not always grow when as dry as that.
Wahaj if your cyclamen do not grow, then give me a PM in Spring and I will  send you a few dozen.

[laurieuk]

Cyclamen seed that has been kept in packets can be very slow in germinateing as the natural coating dries hard. If you wash them well over a few days in luke warm water before sowing germination a greatly improved. I sow on the surface of general purpose compost and just cover with a thin layer of coarse washed sand. Seed saved and sown as soon as ripe, kept outside in a cold frame most times germinates within a couple of weeks or so.

[wahaj]

that's very kind of you palustris :)

and yea....i do that with most my seeds anyway laurie. the difference is pretty striking. if it's really tough seeds i soak them in very dilute fairy liquid.

[valmarg]

Wahaj, corms I promised (on the other thread) are in the post.  Have PM'd you, but the computer threw a wobbly, and I'm not sure if it was sent, or whether it's hanging about in the ether somewhere.

I'm just sorry for taking so long!!

valmarg

[wahaj]

Wahaj, corms I promised (on the other thread) are in the post.  Have PM'd you, but the computer threw a wobbly, and I'm not sure if it was sent, or whether it's hanging about in the ether somewhere.

I'm just sorry for taking so long!!

valmarg

aww thankyou so much. and yea i did get your very informative PM. you do seem to know a lot about them don't you?

again thanks very much :)

[Mrs Ava]

Best bet is to chuck them over a pot of compost which has some fine grit on it, and forget about them!  I did that, under Erics advice of course, and what do you know, a pot of little cyclamen seedlings!  They are now going into year 2 and will be planted out this spring.  I find when I nurture things, they do nothing!  Chuck them in, stick them on the back of the staging and forget about them, grows like cress!

[Robert_Brenchley]

Same here; I've got lots of little pots sitting in a cold frame; they get checked occasionally and watered in hot weather, and that's all. Eventually, things start growing. I hope! I've got Paeonies sprouting at last, and Trillium seed in the post.

[valmarg]

Couldn't agree more RB and EJ.  Left to their own devices seeds (plants) somehow manage to multiply.  The more you pamper them the less you seem to manage to grow.

There are some seeds which are expensive and we give them very very careful nurturing, and what do we get? zippo.

The same seeds, left in the wild would reproduce quite readily.

The moral is. the less care you take of your seeds, the more likely you are to be successul

valmarg