On Fri, 28 Jan 2005 11:22:11 -8 "Rodger Whitlock" <totototo@pacificcoast.net> wrote: > > This sounds similar to the methods used by some of the >experts to > grow cyclamen species in containers: very deep pots >sitting in about > 1/4" water during the summer. Roger, I'm not sure I'd recommend this, and I don't know anyone who uses such an approach. Sitting any cyclamen in a pot in a saucer permanently filled with water is a recipe for rot, especially whilst dormant in the summer. With the exception of C. graecum and maybe persicum, cyclamen have pretty pathetic root systems that will rapidly rot if too wet when dormant (or even when in growth). They hate being over-potted, with a lot of unused or stagnant compost around them. It has been hypothesized that C. graecum likes to have some moisture at the roots whilst dormant and this improves flowering. After playing around with this for several years in several ways I've not been able to see a consistent correlation, and I know for certain that too damp will be disastrous. Last year my hundreds of graecum flowered quite the best ever and they received no water for 3 months. No cyclamen, except possibly rohlfsianum, likes undiluted heat, and over desiccation is detrimental. The tubers with thin skins (coum, the repandum complex for example) are very susceptible, as is hederifolium, strangely. Once a tuber is wrinkly and shrivelled it can be carefully rehydrated but this can lead to rot if it very hot. I have taken to witholding water from all my cyclamen from mid-June to mid-September, apart from an occasional quick flicking over with a hosepipe if they are quite dry. I do keep the pots in a shaded greenhouse and also put a sheet of insulation over the pots of those that most dislike the heat. Cyclamen graecum is like the oncocyclus irises in the summer - asleep on top but busy down below - they also have deeply delving perennial root systems. I suspect Scoliopus is the same and mine are kept pretty dry on top in the summer but never hot and desiccated down below J.