Cyclamen

“ ISSUED BY The MAYFLOWER PUBLISHING CO. FLORAL PARK, N.Y.
Childs' Giant Cyclamen.
Our new strain of Cyclamen is the finest in the world. Enormous flowers, delicate colors, superb foliage. Each bulb produces scores of flowers at once, and each flower keeps perfect about two months before fading. As easily grown in a window as a Geranium. Colors range from dark red to white, delicate blush and pink shades prevailing. ”

“ In March, remove them to a cold pit and keep them rather dry, but not dust dry, and take care that the pots stand on a moist surface, as absolute dryness of the roots is death to the cyclamen. When the seed is ripe gather and sow, and then repot the old corms, taking care to shake off the exhausted soil without in any way injuring the roots. None but experts should ever dream of using liquid manure in the culture of the cyclamen. ”

“ The hardy cyclamen would do admirably, too, but these must be planted on the slope of the dell, as they need perfect drainage. In summer it should be a mass of filmy ferns, foxgloves, and hardy orchids; the best of the orchids is cypripedium spectabile, and it should be planted in peat and leaf-mould, and in such a way that it is fairly dry in winter and well watered in summer. Experiments in the way of growing uncommon plants are always interesting ”

“ The roots which are tubers should be entirely divested of the soil they have been grown in, breaking off any small offsets, and potting them wholly in fresh earth. When growing they cannot get too much water. The plant will grow in a pond of water, and withstand our severest winters, provided the roots are kept at the bottom of the water.
Cyclamen. There are eight species and six varieties of this genus, which consists of humble plants with very beautiful flowers. The bulbs are round, flattened, and solid, and are peculiarly adapted for pots and the decorating of rooms. ”

“ Like most other alpine plants, it loves a pure air, a situation moderately moist, and a soil unmanured: as the beauty of its flowers is apt to be destroyed by severe frosts, it should be covered during the winter with a hand-glass, or if it be treated in the manner recommended for the round-leav'd Cyclamen, it may be had to flower in still greater perfection. ”

“ Cyclamen seed not only germinates slowly, but it also grows in the most capricious manner; sometimes a few plants come up long after others have made a good start. Do not be impatient of their appearance, but when some seedlings are large enough for removal transfer to thumb pots, taking care not to insert them too deeply. As the plants develop, shift into larger pots, ending finally in the 48-size. In the later stages mix less sand with the soil, and when potting always leave the crown of the corm clear. ”

“ At the end of a fortnight transfer the pans to any warm and moist position in the greenhouse or propagating house.
Although the Cyclamen is a tender plant, it does not need a strong heat, and will not endure extremes of any kind. Sudden changes are always fatal to its growth. In winter the temperature should not be allowed to fall below 56°, or to rise above 70° at any time. The more evenly the heat can be maintained the better, and it is desirable to give all the light possible. ”

“ So, the round solid root of a cyclamen, or the conical one which you know so well as a carrot, are not properly roots, but permanent storehouses,—only the fibres that grow from them are roots. Then there are other apparent roots which are not even storehouses, but refuges; houses where the little plant lives in its infancy, through winter and rough weather. ”

“ Water should be gradually diminished until the foliage dies off, and then the corms will require shade, or they will crack. Dry treatment generally results in an attack of thrips, and each root must be painted with some good insecticide to destroy the pest. Cyclamen should never be allowed to become actually dust-dry; but if the pots can be plunged in a shaded moist pit, watering will rarely be necessary. In June the pots may be buried to the rim in a shady spot until August, when it will be time to re-pot and start the bulbs into growth. The chief enemies of Cyclamen are aphis and thrips. ”

“ The garden rises at the end into broken elevated ground showing the native rock through its grassy sides. A row of tall old cypresses crowns the ridge—their fluted trunks gray with lichen-stains, and their deep green spires of foliage forming harp-strings on which the evening winds discourse solemn music, as if the spirit of the poet haunted them still. On one side are the picturesque ruins of a shrine overarching a fountain, now dry and choked up with weeds, and fringed with ferns. Cyclamens—called by the Italians viola pazze, "mad violets"—grow on its margin in glowing masses ”

“ The varieties of Cyclamen latifolium, or persicum, a plant which has yielded under cultivation so many beautiful flowers, are general favourites, and are so easy to cultivate that they are largely grown for the decoration of glass structures and rooms. There are several methods adopted for raising the fine plants so often seen nowadays, which are generally young specimens grown from seeds. The following plan is followed by many successful growers. The seeds are sown from the beginning of August to the end of November, in pans of fibrous loam, some silver sand, and a fifth of leaf-soil. ”

“ Previously, it had been customary with growers to “dry off” the corms, and in so doing dry half the life out of them, but we pointed out the folly of this procedure, and those who acted on our advice made such wondrous displays of cyclamens at the horticultural exhibitions in London that the slower class of gardeners were at last convinced. The instructions that follow are few but sufficient; those who will follow them faithfully will have good reason to rejoice in due time. ”

“ The ascertaining the precise limits of species, and variety, in plants that have been for a great length of time objects of culture, is often attended with difficulties scarcely to be surmounted, is indeed a Gordian Knot to Botanists.
Our plant is the Cyclamen persicum of Miller, and has been introduced into our gardens long since the European ones; being a native of the East-Indies, it is of course more tender than the others, and therefore requires to be treated more in the style of a green-house plant. ”

“ Dibble the seed, an inch apart and a quarter of an inch deep, in pots or pans firmly filled with rich porous soil; and place in heat of not less than 56° and not exceeding 70°; the less the temperature varies the better. Cyclamen seed is both slow and irregular in germinating, and sometimes proves a sore trial even to those who are blessed with patience. As the seedlings become ready transfer to small pots, and shift on as growth demands, always keeping the crown of the corm free from soil. The increasing power of the sun will render shading essential ”

“ They like a dry, porous soil, mixed with a little peat or leaf-mould and some lime or old mortar. The corms are often half out of the ground, or at any rate level with it; but some gardeners, who have paid great attention to their culture, prefer to bury them just under the soil, because the roots of some species come from the top of the corm. The one thing Cyclamens will not stand is stagnant moisture. You must give them well-drained, sandy soil, mixed with a little lime. ”

“ The corolla has a short tube and five large reflexed lobes. After flowering the stalk becomes spirally coiled, drawing the fruit down to the soil. Cyclamen is a favourite winter and spring flowering plant. C. persicum is probably the best known. It is a small-growing kind bearing medium-sized leaves and numerous flowers. C. giganteum is a large, strong-growing species ”

“ Hence it is simply impossible to decide the question on the basis of the experience of the breeders. Even in the case of the same novelty arising in sundry varieties of the same species, the question as to common origin, by means of crossing, is often hard to decide, as for instance in moss-roses and nectarines. On the other hand, instances are on record where the same novelty has appeared at different times, often at long intervals. Such is the case with the butterfly-cyclamen, a form with wide-spreading petals which originated in Martin's nursery in England. ”

“ The Cyclamen or Sowebread is a flower of rare receipt, because it is naturally hard to encrease, and that the flowers are like vnto red or blush coloured Violets, flowring in the end of Summer or beginning of Autumne: the leaues likewise hereof haue no small delight in their pleasant colour, being knotted and circled white vpon greene, and that which most preferreth it, is the Physicall properties thereof for women, which I will declare when I shall shew you the seuerall descriptions of the varieties in his proper place. ”

“ The best positions would be among dwarf shrubs, etc., that would afford slight shelter, on banks or sunny open spots in copses or woods. Bare or dug borders they abhor, and a sunny warm exposure should be chosen. In the case of C. hederæfolium (and perhaps some of the others) ground under trees, bare, or with a very scant vegetation of herbs, etc., would do quite well if the soil were free and warm. There is scarcely a country seat in England in which the hardy Cyclamens, now almost entirely neglected by the gardener, could not be naturalised.
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Cyclamens in the wild garden ”

“ When they start into growth, they should have the old soil shaken off and be potted into smaller pots. At no time should more than half the tuber be under the soil.
April-sown plants should be similarly treated. Cyclamens should bloom in about fifteen months from seed. The seed germinates very slowly.
Tubers large enough to flower the first year may be purchased from the seedsmen at moderate prices; and unless one has facilities for growing the seedlings for a year, purchase of the tubers will give the best satisfaction. Secure new tubers, for old ones are not so good. ”

“ It attains to a great age and immense size. The trunk and branches of an old cypress are smooth and white as ivory, while its light, feathery foliage is of the most dazzling golden-green; and rising, as it often does, amid clumps of dark varnished evergreens,—bay and magnolia and myrtle,—it has a singular and beautiful effect. The long swaying draperies of the gray moss interpose everywhere their wavering outlines and pearl tints amid the brightness and bloom of the forest, giving to its deep recesses the mystery of grottoes hung with fanciful vegetable stalactites. ”

“ No other tree darkens in evening silhouette so impressively as the two queen trees of the Dismal Swamp, the juniper and cypress. With the low sun behind them, the clear-cut delicacy of their foliage reminds one of the exquisite fineness of dried sea mosses on a tinted page. But when the sun has gone down, and the sky is still flushed with its glory, the cypress takes on a mystery of dark and refined beauty that is all its own. It rises still blacker than the dark underwood, the tallest among the trees, lonely, like a plume. ”

“ South of the Caloosa-hatchie river, between the Everglades and the Gulf, extends the Big Cypress. This is a large swamp, fifty miles long and thirty-five miles broad. Here the saw-grass gives way to groves of cypress trees, with a rank and tangled undergrowth of vines. The soil is either bog or quicksand, generally covered one or two feet deep with stagnant water. The sun’s rays rarely penetrate the dense foliage, and on the surface of the water floats a green slime, which, when disturbed, emits a sickening odor of decay. ”

“ The most surprising thing about the bald cypress is the flaring base of the trunk, and the root system which seems too large for the tall but usually narrow top. Knees of cypress rising out of the water from the main roots, are distinguished from stumps by their smooth, conical tops. The base of a great tree often spreads into wide flying buttresses, each hollowed on the inside, but serving with the others to support the hollow-trunked tree. Many a giant of great age stands thus on stilts whose submerged ends are the gnarled roots of the tree. ”

“ The Cycas disappeared as we receded from the river. We passed a small scrubby creek, and a long tract of stringy-bark forest, mixed with bloodwood and Pandanus, and patches of Cypress pine. Here we again observed the gum-tree with orange blossoms and large ribbed seed-vessels, which we found at the upper Lynd, and had called Melaleuca gum. Sterculia was frequent, and we collected a great quantity of its ripe seeds. We passed several dry swamps, surrounded with tea-tree thickets, and heaps of fresh water mussel shells. A rich iron-stone rock cropped out frequently ”

“ The fact that the deciduous cypress grows without difficulty on the moister class of lowlands in California, 12 or 15 feet above bottom water, is of interest in this connection. It then assumes the upland form shown in the figure above, although not growing quite as tall. The calcareous nature of these soils is probably an important factor in this apparently incongruous adaptation of a subtropical swamp tree to arid conditions. In its swamp form the cypress usually grows in rather shallow, heavy clay soil, into the dense subsoil of which the roots penetrate but little. ”

“ From this time to the 22nd, the country presented the same aspect. Occasional groups of cypress showed themselves on narrow sandy ridges, or partial brushes extended from the river, consisting chiefly of the acacia pendula, the stenochylus, and the nut I have already noticed. The soil on which they grew was, if possible, worse than that of the barren plain which we were traversing; and their colour and drooping state rendered the desolate landscape still more dreary.
On the 21st, we found the same singular substance* [Gypsum. See Plate.] ”

“ A second cypress standing near, and of almost equal size, is even more graceful, and they, and all the noble trees which adorn these speaking solitudes, are covered with a creeping plant resembling gray moss, hanging over every branch like long gray hair, giving them a most venerable and druidical look. ”