code: 600
it enjoys decayed pine needle litter incorporated
Family: Primulaceae
Plant Classification: Hardy perennial
Minimum Height: 8 cm
Maximum Height: 13 cm
Packet Content(approx.): 15
Pale to rose pink flowers with a magenta blotch at the nose, and smelling noticeably of honey, bloom in autumn above rosettes of deep green oval leaves with silvery markings. If frosted, the leaves generally recover with a second flush. As it grows in coniferous woodlands at 700–2,000 m elevation in the Taurus Mountains of southern Turkey, it enjoys decayed pine needle litter incorporated in the compost if this is obtainable.
Sowing advice:
Seeds should be sown at any time, and as soon as possible after you have received them. Sow the seeds thinly onto a gritty, loamy compost and cover about 6mm or 1/4 inch deep as light can inhibit germination. Keep at between 10 and 15 degrees C. Germination can take from one to twelve months and is generally erratic, a strategy that has evolved to protect the strain in the wild. Pot on into a low-organic content compost.
Habitat:
Cyclamen cilicium is a mountain species, found over a wide altitude range from about 200 – 2000m, mainly in sandy clay, almost exclusively over limestone, usually in deciduous woodland, sparse coniferous woodland or scrub but sometimes, where the cover has been felled, in shade among rocks.
Cultivation:
Cyclamen cilicium is a frost hardy plant and grows well in a dry, sunny site in the garden in northwest Europe. It also makes an excellent pot plant in a cold greenhouse. Two cultivars have been named but one is the white form and the other indistinguishable from many similar wild forms.
