Cyclamen Hederifolium from Willows Nursery

. . . . . through the year

Even though we have been growing Cyclamen for decades, we still get great pleasure from
the sight of the first Cyclamen Hederifolium flowers of the new season poking their heads up
through the soil or gravel in our garden or shadehouses.

So, we thought that we would take photographs and post them on this page to show what you can expect from
your Cyclamen Hederifolium throughout the year – we hope that you find them of interest.

Les & Anne Cordes 12 August 2019

(A complete annual ‘cycle’ of Cyclamen Hederifolium growth photographs is now below – from 12 August 2019 to 19 July 2020)

12th August 2019 : Cyclamen Hederifolium are dormant in the late Spring/early Summer and begin to grow again in July – the flowers come first, followed by the leaves after a few weeks.  Generally, the white flowered form (Album) starts a little earlier than the pink ones.

24th August 2019 : Cyclamen Hederifolium self seeds and ants help to scatter the seeds around the garden – new plants can then pop up in unexpected places ! The second photograph shows multiple buds coming from a single (roughly 6 years old) corm.  And next a low level view across part of one of our nursery beds – the leaves are just starting to come through now as well.

9th September 2019 :

The first photograph shows the first leaves of newly germinated Cyclamen Hederifolium seeds.

Hopefully, you can see in the second photograph how Cyclamen Hederifolium sets seed.
At the top of the photograph : the flower has come away and the stem is starting to curl downwards.
At the bottom of the photograph : the stem is fully coiled down – over the next 9 months or so the pod will swell and ripen.

8th October 2019 :

Our Cyclamen Hederifolium are now in full flower and leaf – there is a little variation around the Nursery as to how advanced they are depending on different factors affecting growth, such as the amount of shade and dryness of soil.

We have recently been asked how many flowers each corm can be expected to produce. This photograph is of a single ‘mature’ plant growing in an open (unshaded) site – it is probably 10 to 15 years old. 

You can see that some earlier flowers have set seed and coiled down and that there are buds showing more flowers to come – a rough count indicated well over 40 open flowers ! 

** Have a look at 22nd October below.

20th October 2019 : The photographs above show some of our stock plants (from which we gather seed) in one of our shadehouses.  The peak flowering is now past, but there is still a good display and the full leaf patterns are on show.  They are planted a closer together than we recommend our customers plant – hence the jumble of different leaf patterns from different corms/plants in the second photograph – including the less common ‘silver leaf’ form.

22nd October 2019 :

** This is the same plant as photographed 2 weeks ago and shown above (8th October).

It still has a good display of flowers – I counted nearly 40 – and they’re setting seed well.

9th November 2019 :

** This is the same plant as photographed and shown above on 8th October and 22nd October.

I took this photograph as the temperature went down to freezing overnight and this shows how Cyclamen Hederifolium looks first thing in the morning and still frosted.  It is totally hardy but there is a slight colour change in the leaves until they ‘defrost’.

Flowering has now finished on this plant and a few flowers that have set seed have yet to coil downl.

25th November 2019 :

So . . . late November and most of our Hederifolium have finished flowering

The first photograph is the same plant shown several times above and the second is the same group of plants as shown on the 20th October.

 

7th December 2019 :

We’re just about to start the second week in December and we have one Cyclamen Hederifolium plant still in flower !

7th April 2020

We haven’t added any photographs for a while as, really, there is no change in Cyclamen Hederifolium’s appearance through the winter.

There is continued full leaf cover well into March – some plants still have reasonable leaf cover now, but they will soon lose their leaves too as the corms enter dormancy. 

The photograph shows the coiled down flower stems with small seed pods – these will increase in size over the next few months until they ripen and split open in July/August.

 

31st May 2020

Most of our Cyclamen Hederifolium here at the Nursery have now lost their leaves and are, effectively, dormant for a couple of months.  It is a good time to plant cyclamen, however, a little care needs to be taken planting Hederifolium when it is dormant due to the unusual pattern of root growth –  the roots tend to mostly sprout from the upper edge of the corm whilst the underneath of the corm is almost bare.   The corm should be planted with the smooth side DOWN  and with the roots laid out horizontally. 

The first photograph below shows the top of a dormant Hederifolium corm the middle photograph shows the bottom of the same corm which is more bare/smooth and the third photograph shows the top of a dormant Hederifolium corm with a coiled down flower stem with a seed pod attached.  When planting, the seed pod should be left uncovered on the surface of the soil – it will ripen and burst in another month or two.

19 July 2020

You might see odd flowers of Cyclamen Hederifolium starting to show during July.

This is what is going on underground before you see the flowers – some of these are buds, some are leaves that will surface later in the flowering season.

We send Cyclamen Hederifolium out all year round and they will transplant happily.

Plant so that the top of the corm is about 2 cm below the surface – new growth like this must be totally covered.  If there are open flowers and seed pods leave them above the soil. Also leave open leaves above the surface, of course, but cover most of the leaf stalk as this will have been running under the surface.