It all began with two

Many years ago we bought a couple of cyclamen hederifolium - one white and one pink.

The flowers appear at this time of year to be followed by the leaves later. The leaves are similar to ivy (hedera) which is where its name comes from.

Over the years these plants have spread all around the garden coming up in the most unlikely of places and have resulted in flowers in white and various shades of pink.

Some have even started to colonised the allotment plot no doubt transported by accident. The ones below growing in the grass are under our plum trees.

Some were purposely relocated on the plot and have built up into impressive clumps. Not only do the plants mass produce but the corms gradually grow to the size of dinner plates.

Now these plants have a lot going for them - lovely flowers and beautiful leaves - but you can have too much of a good thing. You may remember that earlier I started a pebble garden. Before the pebble garden took up residence this area was carpeted by self sown cyclamen as was the ledge just below. The third photo above is of the same area before it was cleared.

All the plants were dug up. I planted up as many cyclamen as I could in tubs - the idea being that maybe - just maybe - this way I could keep them under more control.

There were literally hundreds of plants so fortunately we also had friends who were only too happy to adopt some of the 'spare' plants.

From only two plants, how did we end up with so many? Well to start with I collected some seed and grew extra plants but really I needn't have gone to that trouble as the plants are only too ready to self propagate.

When the flower head dies the flower stem coils up like a spring and a seed capsule forms.

I can guess what you are thinking. You can be forgiven for assuming that the spring suddenly unfurls to catapult the seeds far and wide. The seeds are too big and heavy for that to work and so the plant relies on the help of ants to transport the ripe seeds. (Apparently this is called myrmecochory - glad I'm writing this and not saying it!). The seed capsule contains food for the ant  larvae so is carried away and later the seeds are discarded. If no obliging ant passes by the seeds germinate close to the plant which is what tends to happen in our garden so we end up with thickets.

I must be more diligent at weeding seedlings out in future!

You may remember that I grew some different types of cyclamen from seed last year One variety was another outdoor variety -cyclamen coum. As the plants raised are still very small they have been kept in the garden greenhouse but I noticed that one has produced its first flower. It's a different shape to hederifolium.

The leaves are different too less ivy shaped and more heart shaped.

I wonder whether these will be as prolific when they grow up?

As for the indoor cyclamen - well that's another post!