Beyond the Daffodil: Cyclamens
and other Choice Bulbs
John Lonsdale's Address to the
September 10, 2006 Meeting of ORGS
From notes by Diana Pooke
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Closely related to C. mirabile is C. cilicium that is hardy outside in this climate if grown in a gritty bed. Also hardy is C. Cyprium which flowers in late November and is sweetly scented.
Flowering in Winter:
Crocus:John grows 25 different Crocus species all of which originate in Greece and Turkey.
C. speciosus flowers in the autumn.
C. niveus is strongly scented and
evergreen over winter.
C. medius makes its leaves in
spring.
C. goulimyi "Mani White"
is very hardy and scented,
C.tournefortii is scented.
Galanthus reginae-olgae is November flowering and bone hardy. Narcissus cantabricus - The hoop petticoat narcissus comes from Portugal/Spain and although hardy they try to flower in winter and get smashed. They are best grown in the greenhouse. Oxalis versicolour has barber's pole flowers and needs lots of light. Adonis amurensis is a harbinger of spring, flowering through snow and ice. There are some new cultivars, one of which is burnt orange. In effect these grow in the sun because there are no leaves on the trees when they flower. They are dor-mant by April.
Flowering in Spring
Eranthis pinnatifida has weird and gorgeous flowers with blue stamens.
Cyclamen Coum puts on a great show in Spring and then produces wonderful leaves in the fall and winter. Most forms are very hardy. C. Coum "Lake Effect" is pure white with a heart of pink.
Cyclamen elegans is hardy in the garden, and C. trochop-teranthum has propeller shaped petals and comes true from seed.
Iris histrioides from Syria is a hardy little bulb. More wacky is Iris pappyrica from Turkey. It's leaves can reach one metre and it is hardy outside. Cyclamen pseudibericum comes through winter best of all the cyclamen grown outside.
Crocus korolkowii needs excellent drainage so is grown in a sand bed. C. abantensis enjoys cooler, damper summers. C. chrysanthus has dark anthers and C. "sunspot" is yellow with black pollen - both are good outside. C. biflorus is deep blue with gold markings on the outside of the Detals. John grows it in the greenhouse but it will do well outdoors if located in well-drained soil in a hot sunny location.
Sternbergia candida is only marginally hardy.
There are some lovely bulbous-corydalis: Corydalis malcensis is a fine white and seeds around. C. solida is happy around the edge of wooded areas and self-seeds true. C. urtschaninowii is from Siberia. It goes dormant in summer and needs cooler temperatures and moisture.
Erythronium caucasicum is white with yellow centres and mottled leaves. Of the Western USA erythroniums there is lots of choice - all of them are gorgeous. Erythronium ros-tratum from Louisiana is his favorite with honey scent, 4" diameter flowers that hang and then reflex.
All the trilliums, of course, do well outside in the garden. John seeds all trilliums direct into his woodland bed. The seed takes two years to germinate. Trillium nivale is a lovely plant with blue/pewter leaves. T. maculatum has spotted leaves, red flowers, and flowers in late March. T. reliquum has deep purple flowers and highly patterned, prostrate leaves.
There are many beautiful fritillaria: F. thunbergii is pale with chequered petals. The pure yellow F. Pudica flowers in March but needs dry conditions in summer. F. palidiflora also likes hot dry summers and F. liliacea is gorgeous but not really hardy in a cold winter.
Other interesting spring bulbs include Narcissus fernandesii. The trouble with Muscari is fall foliage, but the unusual Muscari macrocarpum is yellow and blue and has a scent of bananas and is worth growing. It is hardy and produces its leaves in the Spring. There are also some beautiful little tulips such as T. clusii ssp. aitchinsonii which has a dark raspberry centre.
In specially built sand beds John grows Juno iris which need very, very dry conditions in summer. Iris cycloglossa from Japan is the last of the Junos to flower and can take more moisture in summer than most Junos. Another iris in this sand bed is I. graeberiana. He also grows I. bucharica which has become a lot less expensive and more easily available in recent years.
As a continuation of an interest he developed in the U.K., John tries to grow Onco iris (a netted-look iris with a flower the size of a football) in the sand bed, with varying results. They tend to suffer from rot in our climate. Other Bulbs that he recommends trying are Iris stolonifera and Lewisia rediviva
Visit John Lonsdale's web site at
www.edgewoodgardens.net.
John Lonsdale gardens in Exton, Pennsylvania where he moved from England in 1995. His 400ft. long lot is fairly sunny with a steep slope on one side of the house under a high canopy of trees. In this area he has built a number of raised beds. Mourning the treasures that he had to leave behind in the U.K., his aim from the beginning was to recreate his collection and not only grow some rare bulbs in a greenhouse, but also have a nice garden that contained plants suited to the climate.
A few things have changed since he crossed the Atlantic. He used to think that deer were cute, now he has an 8ft. high plastic deer fence around the yard and a big gate across the driveway. Five cats take care of mice and voles. Also, he used to make leaf mould the English way by cooking leafs in a pressure cooker to sterilize them and then passing them through a sieve. Now the reality of the North American fall has him blowing leaves into huge piles with a leaf blower, and shredding them in a big shredder before piling them onto his woodland beds.
Cyclamen belong to the primula family and there are about 20 - 25 species in the genus.
C. purpurascens is unique in the genus because it has an evergreen habit and needs deep shade. It is his only sum-mer flowering cyclamen (July) and has a nice scent. There is good value in most cyclamen leaves even when the plant isn't in flower and this is true of C. purpurascens that has a huge variety in foliage.
Cyclamen have fascinating seedpods with attached coils like springs. The pod is ripe when it goes from a hard marble to bursting open. The seeds are sticky and sugary Ants love them and take them away and it's a race with the ants to get to the seedpods before they do.
Cultivation:
The pre-requisites to grow the unusual bulbs that John loves are good drainage, lots of rocks and lots of sandy pockets in the soil. He has built sand beds to take drain-age to the extreme.
Cyclamen have a Mediterranean life cycle. They are used to a damp fall, cool winters, moisture in spring, and dry, hot summers when they go dormant. However, although in dormancy, they still grow roots. Cyclamen like hot dry tops but need moisture deeper down. He grows many of his bulbs in plastic pots packed close together because they don't like heat on the outside of the pots. When they go dormant in May/June he doesn't water at all. The exception is C. Coum that he waters lightly. Given too much water, they will rot. He begins watering, lightly, in late August/September but doesn t water much until they show top growth.
John grows all his plants in a mixture of peanut compost and super-coarse perlite that is marketed in the U.S. under the name BioComp BC5. He uses a 1/2" granite grit on top of the seeds. He leaves the germinated plants in the pot for 2 - 3 years before transplanting. August is the time to pot up your seedlings as there is no set back if potted up in these cooler times. Also, you can safely water them at this time. He fertilizes every time he waters with a very weak solution of a low-nitrogen Miracle Grow fertilizer. Little and often.
Flowering in Fall
Merendera montana is like a colchicum in that it flowers in September with no foliage. Coming from the Pyranees it is very hardy and grows well in North America. Another messenger of fall is Sternbergia sicula, bright yellow and crocus-looking, it has a lovely honey scent.
Cyclamen hederifolium flowers
magnificently in fall. You can expect as many as 150 flowers on a
large bulb the size of a dinner plate. In Eastern North America they
flower before the leaves emerge, which shows off the flow-ers to
advantage. Apart from variations on the more nor-mal pink shades, it
also comes in pure white. C. hederifolium will be in flower for a
couple of months and, when the flowers fade, it still has gorgeous
leaves. It needs a dryer soil and more sun than C. Coum, and it is
better if they are planted in separate areas that address their
different needs.
C. hederifoloium ssp. Confusum is
an attractive variation of this cyclamen.
Another fall flowering cyclamen, Cyclamen graecum ssp. graecum, is not hardy and must be grown in a cold green-house. There are a number of very beautiful variations of this elegant plant that deserve space in the cold green-house. Other candidates for the greenhouse are; C. rohifsianum, which has a near-cushion form, comes true from seed and has fabulous foliage. (This bulb needs to be hot baked and dry or it will rot). C. mirabile from Turkey has fimbriate petals and a nice scent. C.mirabile "Tile Barn Nicholas" has particularly fabulous leaves.
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Beyond the Daffodil: |
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Ontario Rock Garden Society Journal |
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February 2007 |
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