Cyclamen coum (also called Sow Bread and eastern Cyclamen)
Cyclamen
coum
Winter-blooming tuberous perennial grown for pink or white flowers. Useful for winter containers and naturalising under trees and shrubs, though some are grown in containers indoors. Some cyclamen have fragrant flowers.
Leaves emerge in autumn, followed by flowers in winter and early spring.
Habit – neat, clump-forming. H: 5-8cm S: 10cm
Stems – pinkish-brown, round, sappy-looking.
Leaves - rounded to roughly heart-shaped, sometimes toothed or lobed and often with silvery markings on dark green above and purplish-red below.
Flowers – nodding blooms with 5 reflexed, twisted petals usually in shades of pink, and sometimes white. The flower-stems coil into tight spirals and push the seed head into the soil after flowering.
Shade to partial shade.
Moderately fertile, humus-rich, well-drained. Avoid planting in areas that get very wet in summer.
Hardy.
Apply a mulch of well rotted organic matter when leaves die back in spring. Susceptible to attack from mice and squirrels. Pot grown plants may be affected by vine weevils.
Plant tubers 3cm to 5cm deep in humus-rich soil under the shade of trees. Sow seed in darkness as soon as it is ripe.
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