Cyclamen coum 'Maurice Dryden'
Hardy Cyclamen are small bulb plants whose best known member is a common house plant (Cyclamen persicum). However, there are 23 species of Cyclamen and several of them (e.g., Cyclamen hederifolium, and Cyclamen coum) are easy to grow, winter-hardy landscape plants. Give these charming little plants a try and you'll fall in love with hardy cyclamen like we have.
Cyclamen are small plants and prefer a rock garden site or a spot where nothing else competes for space. Hardy Cyclamen leaves emerge in the fall and are the main ornamental feature for most of the year. Cyclamen leaves are usually heart shaped and sport amazing silver variegation patterns that vary from individual to individual. Hardy cyclamens typically flower over a two to three month period with bizarre little pink, purple, or white flowers that hover just inches above the ground.
Try growing hardy cyclamen beneath a deciduous tree so that the plants receive the sun and rain that they need during their active growth period, but also have the soil around them kept fairly dry during their summer dormant period. Cyclamen corms will just keep growing larger and larger each year, so if your plant is in a good location, it can get quite wide with age. Although we generally grow our cyclamen as specimens beneath trees and in our rock garden, you can pair them with other dainty little plants that will not over-run them such as anemonella, dwarf hosta, rohdea, cremastra, cypripedium, sanguinaria, sternbergia and trillium.
