
Cyclamen cyprium - tends to be a bit of a Cinderella of the family. Roy Elliott said of it "not the loveliest of the race and difficult to flower..." and placed it flowering in mid winter. I think most people now would say that it flowers in the autumn, but I have plants that keep their flowers right into February. It is rather distinct being normally white, strongly scented with pink auricles and leaves of dull grey, olive or grey green, often mottled rather than the "standard" cyclamen patterning of a hastate pattern. There is a form with dark green leaves with cream splashing, "ES" (for Elizabeth Strangman). I find as a species it varies in vigour, I was given a small amount of fresh seed in the early 90s. Since then some grew large, flowered well and have now passed on, some grew to a medium size and seem to just be ticking over, occasionally taking a year off (ie no leaves or flowers) and others have remained small but still seem to be ok. All from one packet of seed from one other grower! I think my judgement is that it tends to be a bit cranky after 10 years or so. It is often quoted as being endemic to Cyprus but I think it also occurs on Karpathos. Also it has a reputation for not being hardy, my C.cyprium ES was one of the few survivors of a big freeze when I lost other "less hardy" species.
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