Hardy Cyclamen
Cyclamen hederifolium
Flowers in September under trees where little else will, and every care note it has amounts to leaving it be.
Spacing & sowing
- Plant spacing
- 7.9 in
- In-row spacing
- 7.9 in
- Between rows
- 9.8 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
Growing
- Type
- Flower · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Sunlight
- Partial through to full shade.
- Watering
- No watering needed.
- Feeding
- No feeding needed.
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- September
- Pruning
- Leave it entirely alone.
Through the year
- Mar–May Growing
- May–Sep Leaf Fall
- Sep–Sep Spring Growth
- Sep–Dec Flowering
- Jan–Mar Flowering
Companions
Snowdrops, Hellebores, Ferns, Anemone nemorosa
Pests & problems
Garden allies
Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. companion plant
- Beneficial nematodes Steinernema & Heterorhabditis spp.Hunts Vine weevil
Microscopic worms watered onto damp soil that hunt down soil-dwelling grubs and release a bacterium that kills them within days. Timing is the whole thing: warm, damp soil and a small target grub, which means late summer for most of what they are used against.
- Frogs & toads AnuraHunts Vine weevil
A resident toad works the beds every night for slugs, cutworms, and weevils. Recruit them with water — even a sunken basin pond — plus damp shade and an upturned-pot toad house; skip the slug pellets that poison their prey.
- Ground beetle CarabidaeHunts Vine weevil
Fast, glossy night hunters that patrol the soil surface for slugs, cutworms, and root-fly larvae. Give them daytime cover — thick perennial edges, stepping stones, a log — and skip the tillage that wrecks their burrows.
- Hedgehog Erinaceus europaeusHunts Vine weevil
A European animal, and worth saying so plainly: there are no hedgehogs in North America, and the ally that does the same night shift here is the toad, the opossum or the ground beetle. Where they do occur, cut a gap in the fence and skip the pellets.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com