Cyclamen!
Cyclamen! Cyclamen! One of my Cyclamen hederifolium actually survived the summer! I planted 5 C. hederifolium last spring and wasn’t really counting on them A) not getting eaten and B) actually rooting in and growing this fall. Well, 4/5 didn’t but one did! Now if only it’d stop getting eaten off by rabbits…
I know…one bud…so exciting, DEFINITELY worth an entire blog post. What can I say…I’ve been wanting to grow these outside forever so to finally have one…it’s pretty exciting.
I guess I’ll add another picture just so this post isn’t totally lame. I’m working on another garden in Michael’s parents yard. This one is going to be mostly viewed from above so I’m trying to make it look a bit like a swirl of color. The center part (where the stepping stones form a half circle) is going to have a Hamemalis ‘Arnold Promise’. The back corner by the juniper is going to have a gold pillar barberry (I was hoping for Helmond’s Pillar, a dark purple that goes with the purple heuchera) but I can’t find any this late in the season so I guess it’s going to be bright green. Hopefully with the shade it’ll dull to a less bright green. I guess I can just surround it with purple heuchera to make it less clashy with the green and white hosta. In between the stones I’m going to plant Burgundy Glow Ajuga. The bush next to the deck is a Hummingbird clethera that should hopefully be full of blooms in midsummer.
Hopefully next summer it’ll look better… the hosta are in horrible shape since they spent the last 4 months sitting bare root above the ground and never getting watered.
The Midwestern Jungle 
Cylamen are definitely worth getting excited about! I made one unsuccessful attempt at growing them when I was younger, now I just get excited when I see them in the wild.
Where I moved from we couldn’t even dream of growing Cyclamen outdoors. I only knew them as (frequently lousy) houseplants. I can only dream of seeing them in the wild. Now I just need to protect them from the rabbits…
I like the new look of the blog!
Thanks! I’m glad someone noticed!
Cyclamen are suppose to be pretty easyish to start from seed and they require no dormancy. I think I might try and collect some capsules in the next couple of weeks. If I remember right you keep them in the dark until you see them germinating. If pesky rabbits leave them alone it might be a fun project.
The hard part is keeping them dark until they germinate! I can never resist the urge to peek…