These techniques are familiar to me, they are not suitable for my conditions Rodger. The version which I know is where there is a depth of gravel in the bottom of the pot, and the pot is stood in a flooded try. The idea is that the roots will dive into the wet gravel if they want water. However As I recently pointed out, the roots of different cyclamen species vary enormously. The thin fibrous roots on the repandum group can indeed go quite deep, but the roots on C gaecum resemble boot laces or thin versions of the tap roots found on Fraxinus - (not the tap roots found on carrots Jane). These roots are designed to dive into fissures in rocks. C rolfsianum can be left very dry indeed for six months in the Summer and so may alpinum, mirabile and intaminatum, even in trays which are only two inches deep. Intaminatum is better allowed to grow through the Summer. I have found C alpinum especially sensitive to saturated conditions though it is happy to have heavy summer rain, and C persicum suffers more than most from being too dry. One thing which most Cyclamen do seem to have in common is that any hint of water logging -especially when they are not in leaf -will kill them. Peter (UK) On Fri, Oct 26, 2012 at 7:48 PM, Rodger Whitlock <totototo@telus.net> wrote: > On 25 Oct 2012, at 4:57, David Retief wrote: > Summer dormant cyclamen species have very deeply penetrating roots which > continue to imbibe a little moisture all summer, keeping the tubers turgid. > These do well in very deep pots sitting in shallow saucers of water all > summer. > >