I found a little colony of this little beauty, Cyclamen hederifolium hidden away under some overgrown shrubs, so it seemed a good idea to bring a few into the house to enjoy.
You can see why they are called ‘hederifolium’ which means ivy-leaved. There is a tremendous variation of patterns on the leaves.
Some bloom without any leaves at all and the leaves come later. This clump has been flowering for ages.
They come in dark pink, pale pink or even white.
Cyclamen hederifolium ‘Album’
The following combination was accidental, but I think they look good with the leaves of Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’.
They seed around prolifically and as they age the corms become enormous. I have several huge ones that I have had for years and I always bring them with me when I move.
There is also a pretty silver-leaved form. I was lucky enough to be given some seeds of this one.
Some of them look as if they have crossed with the green one.
There are other autumn flowering cyclamen, I keep mine in the greenhouse because I don’t know how hardy they are. I am told Cyclamen purpurascens is hardy, but I am not going to risk it. This beauty starts flowering in the summer and is still going on. The flowers are beautifully perfumed. I love the dark green, marbled leaves.
Cyclamen purpurascens
The other one is the dainty little Cyclamen cilicium which comes from Turkey.
Cyclamen cilicium
Cyclamen cilicium
The red petals in the pot have dropped off Pelargonium ‘Ardens’ which is one of my favourite pelargoniums. Unfortunately it is very hard to propagate.
I am enjoying having these little cyclamen in a vase. They are so pretty and lightly scented too which you might not notice unless you pick them.
I do have these charming little cyclamen scattered in clumps all round the garden and I have wondered whether to dig them all up and have one huge colony. But I would miss coming across them here and there on my rambles round the garden. They tolerate dry shade so they are lovely under trees. I give mine some bonemeal and a good soak in August. I used to give them a top dressing of peat, but now we have to learn to manage without it.
Cathy at Rambling in the Garden hosts the meme ‘In a Vase on Monday’. It is great fun, do join in . Quite a few bloggers have been inspired by this meme to create cutting gardens. Their early October vases are a joy to be seen.
Chloris
The Blooming Garden 
The cyclamen are so pretty! They arrive at our nurseries in late fall and have become a Christmas classic here. We use them as winter annuals, as cyclamen rarely make through the hot summer. I would love to find them all over the garden as you do.
The cyclamen that fill the nurseries here are Cyclamen persicum. They are much bigger and they are not hardy. They don’ t have the delicate beauty of the tiny Cyclamen hederifolium.
The nursery ones are probably the plants we get. Your are really pretty.
Is that a succulent I see providing a background for your pretty Pelargonium? I’d say you already have a nice stand of cyclamen under those shrubs. They aren’t nearly as happy in my garden. Thus far, I’ve only seen one plant reappear and it is, so far, flowerless. I suspect our periodic heatwaves have the other plants opting for the safety of remaining underground. They haven’t appeared en masse in the garden centers here yet either.
Yes, it is Cotyledon orbiculata ‘ Red Edge’. I am lucky yhat I have several large areas of cyclamen, I brought quite a few with me and there were already a lot here. They seed about prolifically too.
I love little surprises like Cyclamens popping up under shrubs, it is one of the reasons I garden. I haven’t seen any Cyclamen in ages, they probably can make it through the parking lot here!
I wonder if they would do well with you, they are such a delight.
I hope you are keeping safe, today is a scary one for Florida.
Probably not on the Cyclamen, although I would love to have some.
I have been through one hurricane – my husband slept through it and the cat and I sat and watched the trees sway. This one is worse – the sun is out now and we have been getting bands of rain. Landfall will be about 100 miles north of us – Cape Canaveral is what they are saying now. We are shuttered in our house and not going anywhere until tomorrow.
Cyclamen are favorites of mine. Like yours, mine are scattered around my garden and it’s always a fun surprise to find a clump in bloom or foliage. The blooms look charming in a vase.
They seem to get everywhere as the ants spread the seeds. They are always a lovely surprise.
The flowers are pretty, but I think the variety of the foliage is even prettier. They look very lovely in your little jug. Good to hear they like dry shade… I will have to try growing some.
The variations in leaf patterns is very marked, they are beautiful. Yes, they are happy under trees, but benefit from a good soaking in August.
Your vase must be tiny, Chloris, as it is perfectly in scale with these pretty cyclamen – I kept wondering whether to cut mine but there were just too many alternatives! Huge patches of them are definitely a sight for sore eyes, but I think I agree that it is nicer to have them popping up anywhere and taking you by surprise. Somehow there is a pink one in the snowdrop border here so that will have to be moved – I suspect it’s a throwback to when I extended one end of the border. Your ‘specials’ are SO sweet, especially the silvery leaved ones. Thanks for sharing
The jug is a little Crown Derby cream jug. The great thing is that each patch of cyclamen seeds about very quickly. The seeds are coated in a sugary substance which is irresistible to ants and they carry them off. This is how they get dispersed.
Yes, that’s something I learned from blogging – although this pink clump has a huge corm so I am fairly sure the ants weren’t responsible for these!
So lovely and delicate. I wonder how they would do in my region.
Cyclamen hederifolium is quite hardy so you should be able to grow it. Do try, you will love it.
These cyclamen scattered about your garden are such treasures. Love this post. The flower-filled pitcher is adorable. The pop of red pelargonium with the Cotyledon orbiculata ‘ Red Edge’ is a great look.
They are a delight and bringing them into the house means you can enjoy them up close and they do have a slight fragrance too. My little Crown Derby cream jug is just the right size.
Going into the greenhouse at this time of year to look at the cyclamen is a great joy. The amaryllis are spectacular but I prefer the delicacy of the cyclamen. After losing so many to the voles my collection is slowly growing again, I will probably only experiment with hederifolium and coum outdoors. It would be lovely to have enough to be able to cut a handful of blooms to bring indoors. In the meantime thank you for sharing.
I only put hederifolium and coum outside. I did have repandum in a sheltered spot but I lost it one hard winter. I let the ants spread mine about, but I have friends who carefully collect the seeds to grow on.
Fortunately hard winters are not on my gardening anxiety list! In a previous existence I just let cyclamen in the garden get on with it and they spread like magic. As all our cyclamen are currently in pots I harvest the seed when I can, but it seems to be fine if I just let it drop in the pots.
We’ve finally got Cyclamen rohlfsianum and cyprium to flower so I’m hoping for some seed.
There are loads of tiny pale pink cyclamen flowers popping up all over the garden here – I love spotting them. Thanks for this interesting overview of the types. Lovely close-up of the jug(?) of blooms.
They are so pretty aren’ t they? Do you have any white ones? I used a little Crown Derby cream jug .
There is a little group of white ones but they’re mostly pink. All beautiful.
The Cyclamen are such treasures, the shady roadsides and woodland are full of them here too; I keep promising myself to plant some in the new shady woodland walk. Such bounty to have enough to fill a vase.
Oh yes, I have seen them in Italy in August. In fact the original name for them was Cyclamen neapolitanum. You have plenty of lovely shady places for them and they would quickly colonise.
Lovely, thank you. They are all pretty in a vase or spread like a blanket but I shall be bent double on the look-out for the silver leaved form. The common name is sowbread, on the grounds that pigs like to eat them. Not in my garden, pork chop!
And Gerard tells us that sowbread ‘ being beaten up and made into little trochisches, or little flat cakes, it is reported to be a good amorous medicine…’ You’ d have to be really desperate to beat all your pretty cyclamen into trochisches.
I don’ t think the silver leaf form arises spontaneously, you will have to buy some or ask a friendly blogger for some seeds.
So lovely to see these. I love the idea of stumbling across them on rambles through the garden. I have just planted a load of pink and white ones under my cherry tree, but I didn’t know they were scented so will get down and have a sniff, and look forward to using the tiny blooms in a vase next year.
The funny thing is, they are not all scented. I suppose the ones we have in our gardens come from all over Southern Europe and there is tremendous variation.
I really need to plant some more Cyclamens – so far, I only have one (a rescue). Love the white one against the Brunnera!
They seed around quite quickly once you have a few. The ants carry the seeds around and plant them in places you would never have thought of.
I shall go smell mine as soon as I get up!!! What a selection of every species you have…..in my dreams, I imagine having a garden, just like yours one fine day…..sighs…dreams eh?
Now, my eyes just popped out of my head, y’know how I told you that I have a chloris corner, where I planted the plants you sent me, well the Iris are bulking up, the Nerines are bulking up, I have five now….but….JACK FROST!!! I’ve been wondering what that was, it’s thriving and is enormous, has been all year, I know it came from you….I’ll go google it, but tell me more gal!!!
What a lovely thing to say Dina. My large selection of plants is the result of a life time’ s obsession, irresponsible extravagance and the uncontrollable need to pick up seeds and cuttings wherever I go.
I am touched that you have a Chloris corner, and I am so glad that your Brunnera Jack Frost is doing well.
Ah! Just googled and now remember that it was covered with flowers early in spring, I thought it was one of the many forget-me-nots that self seed everywhere, I love them so leave them too it….Jack frost eh? Many thanks me dear gal! Your plants seem to like it here!xxx
And Jack Frost should seed a bit too and the seedlings come true.
Goodness those cyclamen look adorable in your tiny ? Jug. The brunnera foliage looks wonderful against the white cyclamen . The garden where I work has self spread cyclamen and they are so lovely.
Yes, it’ s a little Crown Derby cream jug. They are a delight and they seed around so obligingly.
Pretty flowers in such a pretty jug Chloris. I picked some cyclamen the other day and mine are in a three inch high smoky glass posy vase. I too have them sprinkled around the garden although some are now forming quite large clumps a couple of feet across. Does that mean the corm is almost as big? The ants are also spreading them through my gravel beds which is such a lovely surprise.
They must look lovely in a smoky pink vase. The cream jug was all I could find that was the right size, I must get some smaller vases, specially with winter coming on. I love to pick miniature posies in winter.
If you have a large tuber you can usually see it if you gently scrape away the soil. It takes many years for them to get enormous. I didn’ t grow my big ones, they were already in a previous garden. They can live for 100 years.
What a charming and informative post, your collection is beautiful. The leaves are very attractive too, especially the variations you show. I was so pleased to see my patch in flower this year, they’ve survived quite a change in conditions with the felling of the cedar under which I planted them. Thank you for the tip that they are good to cut – I shall seek out grannies little-used cream jug forthwith!
Thank you Kate. Cyclamen are quite adaptable. They are supposed to prefer partial shade, but the ants often carry the seeds off into full sun and they don’ t seem to mind.
By the way, they are still looking fresh in their vase.
That’s a great way to enjoy them. At eye level you can appreciate the petal details at the reflexing and their scent. Lovely idea.
Exactly, I don’ t know why I never thought of picking them for a vase before, they still look fresh.
They are beautiful. I wonder if the gophers here would leave them alone though. I can’t grow tulips except in barrels for that reason.
Thank goodness we don’ t have gophers here. It’ s bad enough with the beastly squirrels digging up the tulip bulbs.