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How to establish a big patch of cyclamen in a woodland

a1154a1154 Posts: 1,044
in Plants
Last year I was keen to get lots of hardy cyclamen corms and plant them all together in my woodland.  It didn’t happen as I was quite surprised at the price; too expensive to buy in bulk.  This spring I was thinking about seed, but I’m not brilliant at it, I only really do plants from seed that are reliable, and it looks quite hit and miss and can be a long germination. 
Any thoughts? 
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  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 13,280
    If you plant a few, you will find they will colonise an area by self sowing, which I find more reliable than sowing them myself. Individual plants will also bulk up. I have some tubers which are the size of dinner plates.
    There are ashtrays of emulsion,
    for the fag ends of the aristocracy.

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • bédébédé Posts: 1,763
    edited 12 March
    There are few alternatives except £££ and patience.  From fresh seed, self-sown or by you in pots, they are easy but will take ca 3 years from seed to flower.

    This applies to both coum, now/spring, or hederiflolia, August/autumn.
      location: Surrey Hills, England, cretaceous acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • a1154a1154 Posts: 1,044
    ah ok, so start with a few and give them some space. 

    Have you propagated by splitting dinner plates PD ?
  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 26,982
    whenever I've damaged a plate I've lost the corm.
    I'd say buy one, with leaf design and colour you like and let it seed. Make sure you get either C. hederifolium (flowering autumn) or C. coum, (flowering now). Avoid those bright coloured ones you get in garden centres in 6 packs, I should think a lot of people lost those this year, they aren't reliably hardy



    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,035
    Make friends with someone who has a patch and beg some babies from them. My neighbour has just brought over 6 dinner plate size ones for us. Like we had in our previous place, they grow on top of each other so we often used to throw hundreds away.
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 8,112
    I've found that hederifolium is more robust then coum, and bulks up much faster. If you know someone who has them, you could maybe get some seed pods from them to scatter around the area.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 13,280
    No, @a1154, I have never split a corm, but it is supposed to be possible.
    There are ashtrays of emulsion,
    for the fag ends of the aristocracy.

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • bédébédé Posts: 1,763
    a1154 said:
    Have you propagated by splitting dinner plates PD ?
    No.  But if you search other cyclamen threads on here there was someone who had.  Or wait and see if they show up on this thread.  

    But avoid the word "split"; "slice" with a very sharp knife would be more appropriate.  Making sure there was a growing point on each slice.  Like dividing a seed-potato.
      location: Surrey Hills, England, cretaceous acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • GardenerSuzeGardenerSuze Posts: 3,546
    I have no need to split C hederifolium as they like my garden a little too much. Years ago a lady I worked for split them successfully.

     She also cut up very expensive snowdrops too. They became her swaps which she sent to friends around the UK.
    RETIRED GARDENER, LIVES IN SOUTH NOTTS, SOIL CLAY.

    'Tis sweet to visit the still wood,where springs. The first flower of the plain. Longfellow.
  • UffUff Posts: 3,199
    The notion of cyclamen corms as big as dinner plates intrigues me, I've never seen one even nearing that size. About 2in across is the biggest I've seen. Going to have to look them up.
    SW SCOTLAND but born in Derbyshire
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