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jbardet

By Jbardet

North Yorkshire, United Kingdom Gb

Has anyone ever grown Cyclamen africanum? I introduced some to my garden about 30 years ago and, as they are superficially similar to C. hederifolium (though not as hardy), I have lost track of which is which.
I seem to remember that C.africanum grows straight up from the corm while C. hederifolium tends to sprawl sideways before emerging. If this is the case then I know where at least one C. africanum is still thriving. JB


On plant Cyclamen hederifolium


Answers

 

No - as far as I know, my outdoor Cyclamen are either C. hederifolium or C. coum. My goodness! My RHS book only gives C. africanus one star and says to grow it in a cool g'house!

Bulbaholic might grow them, though.

10 Dec, 2009

 

Haha, Spritzhenry, you guessed. Yes I do have Cyclamen africanum and I grow it in a pot in the unheated greenhouse. At the moment I am keeping a close eye on the weather and may cover it, and other plants, with fleece today.
Hello, Jbardet, you are correct about the habit if C. africanum. The stems of africanum do grow straight up and the corm is very 'hairy'. See:
http://www.cyclamen.org/africanu.htm
If you go back to the parent page of this link you will be at the Cyclamen Society and they have lots of similar descriptions of other species.

11 Dec, 2009

 

Certainly never managed to keep it going outside here either. Do have one in a pot like Bulbaholic though. It is kept in a cool greenhouse and protected in hard weather like today!

11 Dec, 2009

 

good morning all, I think I used to have this in a pot in the front of the porch were rain could get at it, it was conpleatly neglected , but every september the flowers would come first followed by the leaves and would last a couple of months unless we got an early frost, but it was a large tuber,I had it there for five years and never botherd with it, but it was stolen, I think for the pot, a rather nice one,

11 Dec, 2009

 

SIGH, Cliffo! :-(((

11 Dec, 2009

 

I am telling 'porkies' and had better come clean! I have just come in from fleecing the plants in the green house and noticed that it wasn't there! We had Cyclamen africanum until the very hard spell of weather at the beginning of the year when it moved on to the great compost bin in the sky. I do have a small tray of seedlings that I sowed in 2007 but it will be a year or so yet before they produce flowers.

11 Dec, 2009

 

Bulbaholic & friends,

Thanks for the confirmation of C.africanum. It would seem that the one I still deffinitely have is currently in a 'sink', where I planted it several years ago, in a sheltered corner of the garden. I originally kept it in a tc. pot as a windowsill plant which seems to be the best situation for africanum in the UK.

I transfered it, partly as an experiment and it has since survived many winters.

Fair to say, the sink is against the back wall of the house and we have had a succession of fairly mild winters.

The flower and leaf stems all emerge directly upward from the corm which, when it flowered this autumn, jogged my memory of my early days of collecting cyclamen.

Jb.

11 Dec, 2009

 

The picture & description on the Cyclamen website are very good (and helpful), Bulbaholic. Thanks for that, Jb

12 Dec, 2009

How do I say thanks?

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