Description
Cyclamen colchicum is, at first glance, superficially similar to Cyclamen purpurascens, however the leaves have a thicker, far more leathery texture with deeply sunk veins and thickened margins, which are prominently set with fine teeth. As a rule the leaves of Cyclamen colchicum are less patterned. The differences are immediately obvious when you see the plants.
Both the flowers and the seed pods are a little smaller, on average, than purpurascens and more rounded towards the mouth. The sweetly scented, early-autumnal flowers are of similar shades of carmine pink and purple in both. This starts into flower at the beginning of June. It does not stop until the beginning of October!
In cultivation it responds well to a leaf-rich soil in light shade. It likes woodland-type conditions, with a cold winter and plenty of moisture. It does not respond well to a Mediterranean-type regime, it does not like pots with us and may die if “baked” in summer. Instead give it cool, woodland conditions and a cold winter with frost. We grow it planted out, with small ferns, under the shade of hazels. Lime is neither detrimental nor essential. Despite the species growing over limestone in the wild this is a need for the drainage (in a wet region) and for the conditions which occur over limestone, where it grows. It does not actually require the limestone, it just needs the habitat, drainage, cool moisture, humidity and accompanying flora which it finds there over limestone.
Cyclamen colchicum is found only in a limited region of Adjaria, Georgia where it grows in shaded woodland over dolomite limestone at 300-800m altitude. This isolated population is separated from its closest relative, Cyclamen purpurascens, by almost 2,000Km.
for UK sales ONLY NOT available for export
