On 17-04-03 06:16 PM, Kathleen Sayce <kathleen.sayce@gmail.com> wrote:

I garden in sand (fine beach sand, acidic, and well drained) and have

Fresh water beach or salt water beach? It makes a difference because the
latter will have endless shell fragments in it, providing an equally
endless supply of calcium — which is good for cyclamen.

Cyclamen species need relatively wet winters and relatively dry summers to
do well.

In contrast to Kathleen's garden, mine is on a delicious clay in a low
spot vis a vis the surrounding terrain; I get standing water in the lowest
part many winters. But it's dry in summer. For many years I considered the
ideal site for cyclamen is in the duff that forms under conifers, heavily
laced with lime to cut the acidity. Miracle of miracles, my clay is NOT
sticky when wet, unlike the blue marine clay so common in the Pacific NW.

And the ants have performed miracles: the driveway to my house runs the
length of a 300' lane, and there is Cyclamen repandum all through it now.

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