“An Amorous Medicine?”

Ivy-leaf Cyclamen

Cyclamen hederifolium 'album'

[syn. Cyclamen neapolitanum]

a tuberous perennial that grows 

through the winter and then goes dormant 

in the summer when the seeds ripen & split open.

Now, just finishing her autumn bloom period with

aged bulbs originating at the former garden of 

Shaw Islander, Elsie Crawford Wood. 

"A cottage friend of mine who grows some superb Cyclamen on her kitchen windowsill tells me that her grandmother advised her to water them with weak tea. This may sound like an old wife’s tale, but the tales of some old wives sometimes turn out to be right.
      There are two kinds of Cyclamen: the Persian [Cyclamen persicum], which is the one your friends give you and which is not hardy, and the small, outdoor one, a tiny edition of the big Persian, as hardy as a snowdrop. These little Cyclamen are among the longest-lived of garden plants. A Cyclamen corm will keep itself going for more years than its owner is likely to live. They have other advantages:

1. They will grow under trees, for they tolerate, and indeed enjoy, shade.
2. They do not object to limey soil.
3. They will seed themselves and
4. They will take you around the calendar by a judicious planting of different sorts. C. neapolitanum, for instance, will precede its ivy-like leaves by its little pink flower in late autumn, white flowers if you get the variety album.  C. coum, pink, white, or lilac, will flower from December to March;Ibericum from February to the end of March; C. balearicum will then carry on, followed by C. repandum, which takes you into the summer; and finally, C. europaeum for the late summer and early autumn. 

Some botanists believe this to be a native [to England]; it was certainly recorded here in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when, if beaten into little flat cakes, it was considered ‘a good amorous medicine to make one in love."

No seeds for sale yet, but the bubs are multiplying!

Vita Sackville-West. In Your Garden.
Quote from Cottage Flowers by Marie Angel. Pelham Books, London. 1980