Bulbs for shade - Cyclamen

Cyclamen tubers bought in the US from the few of us who sell them mailorder should do fine, as certainly mine are shipped only when in growth and have plenty of roots.

If wet roots are an issue, plant them in a mound with plenty of 1/4 10 crushed aggregate worked in around them, plus at least afternoon shade... and protection in winter if there's no snow cover. Too much drainage in your climate is better than not enough.

I'd say planting in garden soil would very much depend on the type of soil you have and whether you add some pumice or 1/4 10 to facilitate drainage.

Jim, if you will send me an e-mail privately as a reminder, I can probably find some extra seed to try your experiment again. I store all my seed in the fridge, so maybe it will work this time.

Robin
Hansen Nursery
robin@hansennursery.com
----- Original Message -----
From: J.E. Shields
To: Pacific Bulb Society
Sent: Sunday, July 29, 2012 1:57 PM
Subject: Re: [pbs] Bulbs for shade ?

Interesting suggestion, Roland. Ten or 20 years ago, Jack Elliott thought
Cyclamen ought to naturalize here in Indiana, so he send me about a cupful
of seeds from his garden with instructions to just scatter them in many
different location in my garden. I did, and then remembered where I had
scattered them. The next two or three springs, I searched for any sign of
seedling, but saw none.

You idea to start them in garden soil (in the greenhouse, I presume) and
then plant them out in the garden in the second year sounds interesting.

Does anyone have surplus Cyclamen seeds (coum, hederifolium, purpureum) to
throw away? if so I'll try Roland's experiment with them. Contact me if
you want to help with this little experiment.

About too wet, I can do little. The middle half of the USA is in the midst
of its worst drought since the 1930's, but we can have up to 7 inches (175
mm) of rain in the month of July in some years.

We have had about 40 days of high temperatures reaching 90 F (32 C) in the
last 7 weeks; normal is 18 days of 90 F in the whole summer here. I assume
the heat would not hurt the Cyclamen in the garden, right?

Jim S.
in central Indiana

At 10:42 PM 7/29/2012 +0200, you wrote:

-25ºC where I lived before wasn't a problem
one cm deep planted on a small hill
a few cm higher as the rest of the garden
and fine chicken-wire over the bulbs against squirrels

biggest problem is that in the trade the bulbs are wild collected
they hardly re-root in the garden
and die after a few years
or they rot because the place is to wet

better to grow them from seed in garden-soil
and replant them the second year in the garden

Roland
......

*************************************************
Jim Shields USDA Zone 5
P.O. Box 92 WWW: http://www.shieldsgardens.com/
Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA
Lat. 40° 02.8' N, Long. 086° 06.6' W

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