Cyclamen graecum

A dull day, often wet, never more so than during the hour when I was at work cleaning ... in and outdoors :-/    Glad of a good waterproof but still dripping wet!

I can still play in the garden on wet days now that I have the greenhouse.  This morning I was mostly tidying and organising the contents.   Lunch at Jamie's and some time with him while he organised things he needs for our mini-break in Brum.  We also brushed Meg again.  She's soft and silky after her bath yesterday but still shedding hugely from her thick undercoat.    

Cyclamen graecum, a plant that I had great success with in Norfolk where the sandy soil and reliably hot, dry summers really suited this species which comes, as the name suggests from a hot climate.   This is a young plant of subspecies candicum which has very nicely marked leaves.  This species has two types of roots, thick fleshy ones that often extend very deeply and from these emanate finer, feeding roots that take up moisture and nutrients.   Coming from places that are often without rain for many months in summer, the thick roots plunge down to a depth where some moisture remains all year.   In pots these have a tendency to escape through the hole/s in the bottom.   It's well suited to a clay pot plunged in sand in a greenhouse.   By keeping the sand moist at depth while the tuber is dry and warm above, it is possible to create conditions that encourage good flowering.   Something similar can be done in plastic pots but the summer watering is a bit more fiddly.   It used to have a reputation for tenderness and shy flowering outdoors but as our climate has warmed more people are finding suitable places for it in gardens, as I did in Norfolk.