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Marg Jenkins - potting on Cyclamen

Marg Jenkins about - on Cyclamen

This afternoon, (recognising the 2 metre separation requirement) I spent nearly an hour watching Marg, and photographing the fascinating procedure of removing a 10 year old Cyclamen hederifolium from its large bowl shaped pot. All of the plants (other than the matriarch) involved in the "transplant" were self-sown! The exercise was triggered by Trevor Nottle's more general article on the species, where he mentioned the "mystical practices" involved in growing from seed.
I'll run through the procedure as demonstrated to me, and you can decide whether black magic is involved!

This afternoon, (recognising the 2 metre separation requirement) I spent nearly an hour watching Marg, and photographing the fascinating procedure of removing a 10 year old Cyclamen hederifolium from its large bowl shaped pot. All of the plants (other than the matriarch) involved in the "transplant" were self-sown! The exercise was triggered by Trevor Nottle's more general article on the species, where he mentioned the "mystical practices" involved in growing from seed.
I'll run through the procedure as demonstrated to me, and you can decide whether black magic is involved!

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The pot is upended, and the gravel mulch collected for re-use, before the aged potting mix is allowed to fall out.
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Before tipping the pot contents out, Marg showed me the just germinating baby plants under the mature leaves.
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A close look at the developing seed capsule.
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Some of the seeds have already germinated and produce tiny tubers which are initially almost pure white.
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These little tubers have been removed from the soil just under the surface. Note that one of the tubers is now a mid tan colour - indicating that this germinated last year.
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A closer look a a first year tuber.
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These little tubers are now complete with growing stalks and leaves.
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Between Marg's thumbs we can see a small mature tuber snuggling up to it's much larger lumpy parent.
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Here we see a mature tuber - looking like a lump of dirt with small roots adhering.
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This young tuber is about 2 years old.
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And now here's one that has matured enough to have flowered and set seed of it's own.
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The matriarch tuber is about 10 years old.
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I think that these are all of the first year tubers that we collected from the pot. Up to 1 year they're brown. White indicates that they have just germinated in the last few weeks.
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And here is the whole family! The matriarch tuber sits in the lower left, and we progress around the perimeter in an anticlockwise direction to see the ever younger plants. New borns and 1 year olds in the bowls.
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Now here is "Grandma", potted back in her bowl, but without the crowding of all her "issues" to hold her back.
She certainly needs all the space that she can get - she's 12.5cm across and 10 years old!