Pamela Harlow wrote: >Cyclamen graecum outdoors in Portland! Can you expand on this? Do you have >an unusually hardy strain? I've always mollycoddled mine in my warmest >(never freezes) greenhouse. I would grow much more of it if I could plant it >in the garden. (Seattle--zone 8) Cyclamen graecum occurs in both Greece and Turkey and the forms from the Peloponnese are more attractive than those in Anatolia. I saw the Anatolian form right on the coast and don't know how far it gets into the mountains. I suspect the source of seed has an influence on how cold-hardy it is. Mine appear to be the Greek form, and I also have an old strain that went around under the name "Gaidurovryssi," which is more or less the name of a small Aegean island. If you do try some in the garden, give it a gritty soil with perfect drainage, and remember that it's quite sun-tolerant, especially in the Pacific Northwest. My plants have regularly survived 20 degrees F. in full leaf. I have them all in full sun. It will also grow in quite small crevices or holes in limestone or tufa. It does not, however, need lime as long as its soil is reasonably fertile (I use soluble fertilizer). Also, I think it likes deep planting as it has quite a "neck" above the tuber, and it has evolved in areas regularly swept by fires; I have photos of fabulous blooming plants in completely bare terra rossa where everything had burned off just a couple of months earlier. I wish more people, especially in California, knew about this beautiful species. Jane McGary Portland, Oregon, USA