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Terryk
My Weather
My Garden
My Time
| | Posted on Saturday, November 04, 2006 - 02:04 pm EST : |   
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Fantastic, Matthias, you must have been posting as I was writing. I hoped on to see the second group, great leaf patterns. That road though....
Tim it does not take much to get you itching to travel.
Terryk
- NY,
Zone "6"
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Tim
| | Posted on Saturday, November 04, 2006 - 02:53 pm EST : |
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Yeah, I know Terry. At this time of the year when the evenings are dark by the time I get in from work, I often spend hours looking over maps of Croatia/Bosnia/Slovenia finding places I should/need to visit in the future.
Another trip to Turkey would also be exciting in late October/early November.
I took this photo of my largest C. africanum earlier today and this thread seems the most appropriate place to post it. It demonstrates just how big this single plant is when you compare it to those around it.
Plants like this are great - when they belong to other people and it's not your room they are taking up!
Tim
- Cambridgeshire,
Zone "7 "
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Matthias
| | Posted on Sunday, November 05, 2006 - 05:11 am EST : |
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Terry, if you have a closer look, you will notice that it is a very narrow footpath, though I must admit that some of the roads in that area can be quite like that ...
Yes, certainly, and moreover it is a great pleasure in its own right to see these compositions in the wild in never ending variability.
Tim, these silver shields are very rare and are limited to an area maybe the size of a football field where they occur sporadically. I saw maybe 6 or 8 plants like this in the said area. So, this pattern is genetically controlled within this special group of plants but the existence and frequency of these plants is also environmentally controlled. Interestingly these plants occur at the foot of a very large open limestone cliff where the strong sunlight ad heat might favour the selection of such types.
I found this aberrant leaf (reversion) which demonstrates convincingly, that cyclamen are true dicots with the two leaves fused along the middle axis. We often find cyclamen leaves which are "split up" half way and have two leaf tips.
Matthias
- Southern Germany,
Zone "7"
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Gardenfiend
My Weather
| | Posted on Sunday, November 05, 2006 - 05:23 am EST : |
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What a fantastic thread! I'm enjoying the pictures very much - and just wanted to speak up so you know there are more out there appreciating your photos and explanations.
Gardenfiend
- Germany,
Zone "7a"
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Carol23
| | Posted on Sunday, November 05, 2006 - 07:52 am EST : |
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Matthias, the foliage on those purpurascens is exquisite! It's helpful to me to see the habitat since this isn't the easiest species to grow here.
All of those leaf patterns have swayed me more to admire the species. I hope someone makes those forms available!
Tim and Matthias, I'm happy to see such diversity!
Carol23
- Southeastern PA,
Zone "6B"
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Geoforce
My Weather
| | Posted on Sunday, November 05, 2006 - 08:39 am EST : |
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Matthias, those are certainly some interesting leaf patterns. From the habitat photo, it appears that this is a rather wet environment. Is that a beech tree? The majority of the ground seems covered with moss amd deep leaf litter. I assume that the soil is mostly scree with organic matter mixed in as is typical of talus drifts along steep cliffs?
Geoforce
- Pennsylvania,
Zone "USDA 7a"
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Matthias
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 07, 2006 - 03:41 am EST : |
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Carol, availability of such plants will always be a difficult thing and will never be possible on a large scale. The plants in my photos are wild and if we are able to collect a few seeds only a small percentage of the resulting seedlings will "come true". I´m sure Tim can tell us much more about this as he "produces" lots of seeds and seedlings each year.
Try the following link: http://www.cyclamen.org/purp_set.html
and then click on "More Pictures" and then "20 different leaf forms"
Here you can see the range of leaf forms of plants in cultivation of which seeds may be available.
George, your description of the soil is absolutely correct with the only addition that even at the foot of these tall cliffs it can get very dry during the hot mediterranean summer months.
Matthias
- Southern Germany,
Zone "7"
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Terryk
My Weather
My Garden
My Time
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 07, 2006 - 05:21 am EST : |
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Tim or Matthias, I thought there was an area on the cyclamen society web site that had a species by species description of leaf size, shape coloring accompanied by line drawings. Am I imagining this or can either of you point me in the direction?
I find that site great for reference but I still can be so confused with the different species because the pattern of leaves can are so variable.
Terryk
- NY,
Zone "6"
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Carol23
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 07, 2006 - 06:50 am EST : |
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Matthias, thank you for the information. I do know about seedlings not looking like the parent plant.
Some of my most unusual forms of hederifolium have failed to reproduce the traits I admired. However, I've not given up hope that eventually a seedling or two may mimic the parent.
Carol23
- Southeastern PA,
Zone "6B"
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Wilsonae_cyclamen
My Weather
| | Posted on Friday, November 10, 2006 - 07:45 pm EST : |
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Hi Matthias/Tim,
About cyclamen seedlings not looking like their parent plant, I have some Tile Barn Elizabeth seedlings and some don't look like the parent plant - should I just cull them
or is it worthwhile growing them on to see if their offspring will produce seedlings looking like they are supposed to?
Wilsonae_cyclamen
- New York,
Zone "6 "
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Carol23
| | Posted on Saturday, November 11, 2006 - 06:20 am EST : |
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Wilson, I have a pot of seedlings of that cultivar. I'm planning on labeling them " coum " and I won't discard any.
Carol23
- Southeastern PA,
Zone "6B"
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Terryk
My Weather
My Garden
My Time
| | Posted on Saturday, November 11, 2006 - 06:53 am EST : |
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Carol, I love the shape and dark edge sets off the solid silver/lt. green well. Are those Tim's initials I see on the label? I think I may have a similar plant or two, I have to check the room.
Terryk
- NY,
Zone "6"
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