Jane 30, 1870. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



CYCLAMEN PERSICUM CULTURE. 



yW OR utility, ease of culture, delicate perfume, 

 Oj/Sff elegant form, and varied colours and mark- 

 ings, Cyclamen persicum stands unrivalled 

 II ^ C- J .' Bmangsl winter-flowering plants. The free- 

 dom with which its flowers are produced, and 

 the length of time which they continue in 

 all their beauty and freshness, are valuable 

 qualities : the foliage, too, is very orna- 

 mental ; in a collection of a few dozen plants 

 the leaf markings present almost as much 

 variety as the flowers. 



Very different is the present system of cultivating this 

 plant from that practised only a few years ago ; two and 

 even three years were then considered necessary for flower- 

 ing, while now it is thought very slow work if we do not 

 produce strong vigorous plants with thirty or forty flowers 

 expanding within nine or ten months from the date of 

 sowing the seed. " Sow the seed as soon as it is gathered." 

 is the rule frequently laid down. This may be good ad- 

 vice for those who have plants, hut to the beginner who 

 knows nothing of the culture of this Cyclamen, simple 

 though it is, such advice is not only puzzling but is likely 

 to lead to error ; for if he inquires when the seed is ripe, he 

 is told in June or July, and if, acting upon this information, 

 he sows the seed in June, three months are lost, and no 

 flowers obtained till the second winter after sowing. 



The best time to sow the seed is early in March. The 

 well-drained seed pans should be placed in a brisk moist 

 temperature, and the soil kept damp. It is a good plan to 

 paint with whitewash the glass under which these and other 

 young and tender plants are being reared, as they are 

 thereby rendered quite safe from the scorching effects of 

 the sun's rays. As soon as the seedlings are large enough 

 to handle they are potted singly in o-inch pots in rich 

 loamy soil, and kept growing briskly in the same lively 

 moist temperature. They are shifted into 6-inch pots 

 during the summer, and as winter approaches, if the plants 

 have grown as freely as they ought to have done, they will 

 be well furnished with foliage, and each crown will have 

 a proportionate cluster of blossom buds, which will ex- 

 pand best in a cool house or window during winter. Those 

 having scentless flowers, unless their markings are very 

 good, should be discarded, and as some such are to be 

 found in every batch of seedlings, it is well at first either 

 to raise two or three times the quantity it is intended to 

 keep, or to make annual sowings till enough good kinds 

 be obtained. 



As the flowers fade, the plants may be shaken out of the 

 soil, repotted at once, and kept growing in heat, larger 

 pots being given as required. An excellent and easy 

 method of summer culture which I constantly follow is 

 to prepare a bed in the open garden, not in a shaded 

 position as is sometimes advised, but fully exposed to the 

 sun. This bed is formed of equal parts of old hotbed 

 manure, garden soil, and sand well mixed together. About 

 the last week in April the plants are turned out of the 

 pots, and planted in the bed at a foot or 18 inches apart, 

 No. 183.— Vol. XVIII., New Semis. 



according to their size ; they are watered freely and con- 

 stantly throughout the summer, and the soil around tketa 

 occasionally stirred with a hoe, that being all the attention, 

 they require till the first week in October, when they are 

 carefully lifted, potted, and placed either in a cool pit or 

 in a house, and kept syringed and shaded for a week or 

 two. When lifted from their summer quarters they are 

 a dense compact mass of healthy foliage, and their crowns; 

 are bristling all over with flower buds, which, with a little 

 care, afford a splendid display of bloom in the dull months 

 of winter. 



For the first bloom the most forward plants should be 

 placed in a cool house, from which frost is excluded, in as 

 light and airy a position as can be had, and the others, 

 from which a few plants can be taken as required to main- 

 tain a constant succession of bloom, may be kept in a pit or 

 frame, protected in severe weather, and preserved as free 

 from damp as possible ; for if any moisture effect a lodge- 

 ment among the flower buds or at the base of the leaves, 

 they will quickly decay. In potting, in order to obviate 

 this evil as much as possible, the corms should be kept 

 well up out of the soil. I know some advocate a deeper 

 system of potting in order to secure roots from the sides 

 of the corms, but from my own experience of the muclt 

 greater liability of the plants to suffer from damp when 

 thus potted, I would always advise that nothing but tint 

 base of the corm should be under the surface of the soil, 

 every part of which will be quickly penetrated by crawds 

 of roots, if the plant is as healthy as it ought to b;. 



It is a frequent matter of complaint with beginners in 

 Cyclamen culture, that even if they do obtaiu a promising 

 crop of flower buds, yet enough flowers will not expand at 

 the same time to give the wished-for mass of bloom. The 

 cause of this is the starvation system of feeding the plants 

 so frequently adopted after the flower buds are forme*. 

 If the roots of a plant which have been revelling autonf, 

 the rich soil of the summer bed are put into the confined 

 space of a flower pot, the nutriment of the soil contained 

 therein is quickly consumed by the plant, and then a 

 check is given, of which the evidence is visible in the 

 weakly development of the flowers. When the roots of & 

 Cyclamen, and in fact of all other gross-feeding plants 

 just coming into flower, reach the sides of the pot, arwl 

 are seen peering out of the hole at the bottom, it i* higit 

 time that something better than clear water should be 

 given; liquid manure is, therefore, constantly used after 

 the plants have reached this stage, and with the most 

 satisfactory results. 



To reduce the foregoing remarks to the form of a few 

 simple rules it is best to — 



1, Sow the seed earl}' in March in light rich gait, cover 

 the seed thinly, and place the pans in a brisk ntaisf 

 temperature. 



a, Prick-out all the healthy seedlings singly into :J-incn 

 pots, keep the plants growing freely in the same teinpern.- 

 ture, shift them into (i-inch pots when the roots totcehthe 

 sides of the small pots, and remove the plants to a. cooler 

 temperature in autumn. 



3, As the plants commence to bloom in winter. ft«i 

 No, 1135.— Vol. XLIIL, Old Szbo*. 



