PERSIAN CYCLAMEN. 



2G3 



PERSIAN CYCLAMEN. 



By Mr. W. Iggulden. 

 [Bead September 21, 1897.] 



No apology will be offered for bringing forward this important 

 subject to-day. It is not too early nor too late, though it would 

 have been more satisfactory to have been able to point to a few 

 well- flowered plants, such as might have been brought here in 

 November or later. Not one among my hearers can, if they are 

 honest, gainsay the fact that Persian Cyclamen rank among 

 the most beautiful, the most serviceable, and the most popular 

 of winter- flowering plants. It is doubtful if they have a rival, 

 and they ought to be considered invaluable alike to private 

 gardeners as well as to trade or market growers. No other plant 

 that I am acquainted with — at any rate, that may be raised so 

 cheaply — can claim to be so profitable. Well-grown Cyclamen 

 are capable of producing flowers freely from October to March 

 inclusive, and there is much to admire in the foliage of the 

 best strains, as well as in the flowers and in their scent. But there 

 is a flaw in the character of this gem of the winter. All appre- 

 ciate their merits, but how many among us can truthfully say 

 they invariably succeed in growing Cyclamen satisfactorily ? 

 Only a limited number— or I know nothing about it. The least 

 that can be said is that there are far more failures than successes. 

 What gardener of an observant turn of mind has not seen batch 

 after batch of miserably stunted plants, with a few leaves and 

 still fewer flowers, that represent the sum total of the various 

 growers' skill in the cultivation of Cyclamen? As a successful 

 as well as an unsuccessful grower, being also one who goes about 

 with his eyes open, and ever bent on improving the shining hour, 

 I venture to offer a few hints as to how failures may be more 

 often avoided in the future. 



Persian Cyclamen cannot be grown to anything approaching 

 perfection in the same haphazard fashion that answers fairly 

 well in the case of Cinerarias and Chinese Primulas. From 

 first to last they must have every attention, and ought really to 

 be made quite as much a speciality as are Chrysanthemums with 

 so many growers. Private gardeners, with their multifarious 

 duties and manifold worries, are at a serious disadvantage, 

 especially when we compare their conveniences with those at 



