Fuschia-flowered Cyclamen coum - Eastern sowbread

A selection of Cyclamen Coum with fuchsia pink flowers and green foliage, without marbling. It comes from the Cyclamen from the island of Cos, one of the most resistant and easy to grow species. This small form creates flowered carpets in winter. Its beautiful small round foliage, dark green, appears in autumn and persists until the end of spring and then disappears in summer. Install it in partial shade or shade under trees, along a path, in a shaded rockery. Over the years, it will form an elegant and low-maintenance carpet.

Cyclamen Coum is a perennial plant with tuberized roots belonging to the Primulaceae family. The species is not native to the island of Cos, Greece, but rather to the mountains of Bulgaria, Turkey, and Lebanon, corresponding to the region of Eastern Cilicia, where it is generally found in shaded areas. This small species measures about 10 cm in height.

Cyclamen Coum has given rise to numerous forms, with varied flowers and foliage, including this lovely fuchsia variety with green foliage. Some producers have made it a specialty, notably Kwekerij Koen, which works on an artisanal scale. Their nursery is located in Westland, Netherlands, an area of ​​intense horticultural production. Kwekerij is passionate about hybridising botanical cyclamens: Cyclamen Coum, C. hederifolium, and C. purpurascens. They perform pollination on the parental lines with a brush, then collect the seeds, sow them, and then transplant them into pots.

The tubers of Cyclamen Coum are rounded and compressed, measuring up to 6.5 cm in diameter and are covered with a smooth and velvety "skin" and equipped with roots coming from their centre and base. The foliage generally develops in autumn, after a dry summer. In cool and humid climates, it may sometimes only appear at the same time as the flowers, in January-February. The leaves, rounded, measure 4 to 5 cm in diameter. In the variety presented here, they are a solid dark green. Their undersides are coloured purple-pink. As soon as the soil dries out a bit, in June, the foliage disappears and the plant goes into dormancy. This variety survives  our normal winters, but a layer of dead leaves will be beneficial in case of prolonged frost.

The flowering of the fuchsia Cyclamen Coum with green foliage takes place between early February and mid-March, depending on the climate. The pointed flower buds, initially lying on the ground, stand upright on reddish peduncles. Each flower, quite stout, measuring 1 to 2 cm long, is composed of 5 fuchsia pink petals with rounded edges, curved backward. After pollination, the flower gives way to a small round fruit, with the floral stem spiraling to allow the fruit to come into contact with the ground. Ants, which feast on their sweet flesh, disperse the seeds.

Plant Cyclamen Coum by mixing the varieties, in a carpet-like arrangement. They will multiply on their own over the years, creating unforgettable scenes in the somewhat shaded and dry areas of the garden, which are difficult to design. The cyclamen is a perfect plant to enhance the base of a deciduous tree in an understory soil, with hellebores for example. Resistant to cold, its tuber fears excessive moisture, both in winter and summer, and it does not tolerate complete drying out in summer. It will find its place in a partially shaded rockery, not too dry, in the company of anemones blanda 'Blue Shades' for example. To have two flowering periods, plant Cyclamen cilicicum and Cyclamen 'de Naples', for autumn flowering.