At the Royal Horticultural Society garden centre in Harlow Carr today, inside the large greenhouse annexed to the shop, they had counters full of colourful cyclamen and poinsettias. While I have never been particularly enraptured by poinsettias, I do love cyclamen. Out of kindness, I don't buy them. I used to, many moons ago, but I have never bought a cyclamen yet that I have not swiftly killed off. There must be a trick to keeping them alive but it is one that I have never learned.
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| Cyclamen 'Metis' |
Cyclamen.Org FAQ (external link).
I understand that it is an art to get poinsettias to flower just at the right time for Christmas. It's all to do with keeping them in the dark for a period of time, or something. Actually, it's the colourful bracts, not the insignificant flowers, that attract all the attention. These shrubs used to grow in gardens when I lived in the Caribbean and people would grow them next to a shrub that would flower white at the same time:
Aegopodium podagraria 'Variegatum a.k.a. Snow on the Mountain (Tripadvisor, external link). They looked lovely together.
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| Poinsettia, pink bracts and insignificant flowers |
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| Poinsettia, pink bracts and insignificant flowers |
