In NZ Miniature Cyclamen are available during May and June.  Often they are used in container planting during autumn and winter because they flower all winter long and don’t mind the cold as long as they aren’t wet.

However they are brilliant natural subjects for woodland or shady gardens too – multiplying naturally by seeding and in time covering small areas.  As seen above (in Paklenica National Park, Croatia) they thrive under trees and happily nestle around the roots of trees.  They can cope with short periods of extremely dry conditions as they can store nutrients in their bulb.  Plant them in some nice rich compost and feed them with Tui Flower Booster and they’ll flower right through winter and last for decades.

We found literally thousands of these darling little plants (these were C. Hedrifoloium)  alongside the path mixed in with woodland anemones and Viola Adriatica.  As you can imagine we took rather longer than most to make our way to the top where we were rewarded with Frittalarias!