Florist's Cyclamen

Florist's Cyclamen

Cyclamen persicum ‘Halios Dhiva Rose with Eye’

(SIGH-kla-men) (PER-see-kum)

Synonym: Cyclamen indicum

Wordless Wednesday

Alpine Cyclamen

Cyclamen
Cyclamen ‘National Liberty Lad’
(SIGH-kla-men)

Once in a while I come across a flower that Google has never heard of and Today’s Flower is one. It was growing and blooming happily in the Alpine House at Wave Hill Gardens in the Bronx. Most people know Cyclamen as a florist plant that brightens up the house over the winter but there a few hardy types that can grow outside in the garden. The hardy types often bloom here very early in the spring and do better when we have snow cover. It takes a long time for small patches of them to develop.

The 23 species of Cyclamen are mostly native to the Mediterranean area and Europe where some of the species are endangered from over harvesting. ‘National Liberty Lad’ is even smaller than the dwarf types you see for sale at the florist. It does have the variegated leaves and upswept flower petals of the common types.

For more flower pictures from around the world check out:
Today’s Flowers . The links open at 1400 GMT.

Here is the Today’s Flowers bonus picture. It was also a denizen of the Alpine house. The flower was about ¼ inch wide and being so small a little difficult to get a shot of.


Swan River Daisy
Brachyscome multifida
(brak-kys-koh-mee) (mul-TIF-id-uh)
Synonyms: Rock Daisy, Hawkesbury River Daisy

This native of Australia is a relative of the Brachyscome we grow a lot in containers. I know that species as a trouble free, free flowering and low maintenance annual. The species name, multifida, means ‘many divided’ and you can see where that comes from with a little of the foliage creeping in. I have only seen this color of Brachyscome but they also come in pink, white, yellow, purple and blue.

ABC Wednesday - Hardy Cyclamen

If you are here for Wordless Wednesday please scroll down one post.

It is once again time for ABC Wednesday. I finally got back out in the garden and took a couple of pictures. ‘H’ is for Hardy Cyclamen. Which I featured on this post last year:
Hardy Cyclamen

I am glad to see that I shot it a little different this year. I see that the flower is blooming earlier than last year, which is a good thing. Originally when I started this blog I decided not to post the same plant again but found that to be self-limiting. I also wanted to take the pictures the week of the post but I have found I have been archive dipping quite a bit. I did take these first three yesterday which was a good thing. There is hardly anything blooming in the garden right now but plenty of things on the verge of blooming.

Hardy Cyclamen is a fun plant to have in the garden but you have to be patient. This is the spring blooming type, Cyclamen coum, which has smaller flowers than the fall blooming types. I had to get down on the ground to take this picture. It is still pretty cold and wet!


H is helper and Half Pint. This is my little friend, Lily; she makes sure nothing bothers me at work. She is a funny dog and is seen here standing on a 4-foot high stonewall. She goes everywhere on the Estate and is quite a trooper. It is kind of funny to see the two of us together. I am 6 foot 6 inches and she is about 5 inches. She thinks she is much bigger than that. Please excuse the condition of the garden behind Lily. I have a lot of work to do cleaning up.


Continuing my day at work I would have to call this a ‘H’azardous tree. It blew over a few weeks ago and the tree company is coming to take it down. It is about 50 feet tall and completely jammed into the top of a live tree (sorry not a wide enough lens to show the top). They going to climb up the live tree and cut out the dead one. I thought this better left to someone crazier than me. :lol:


Here is a picture that I took last fall of a Hoover fly (Toxomerus geminatus) on a Korean Chrysanthemum. I almost nailed it but feel the DOF could have been better.

I had a couple more ‘H’ pictures. Maybe I will post them later in the week.

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Hardy Cyclamen (Cyclamen coum)

Hardy Cyclamen
Cyclamen coum
(SIGH-kla-men) (KOO-um)

This plant is unusual early spring bloomer. I like it because it will grow in places a lot of other plants won’t tolerate. I have a fairly large patch growing under my Dwarf Sugar Maple. Nothing else has tried to make it in that area. There is a smaller patch that I have growing in the River Birch Grove. The flowers emerge at same time the silver streaked round foliage does and the color ranges from deep pink to white. For consistent color try and find a named cultivar. It sometimes take awhile for the tubers to get going. As I remember I planted some and then didn’t see them for a year or two and I thought they had malfunctioned. Later I was happy to see a couple popping up and then a few more. I think I have found the key to their cultivation is having well drained soil. This plant falls into the Primrose family, Primulaceae. I am trying to learn more about the plant families and will try and reference them here more this year. The Primrose family has 28 genera of herbaceous flowering plants including some very familiar garden plants.