CYCLAMEN AND POINSETTIAS FOR CHRISTMAS CHEER

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.





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. 

Poinsettia, pink bracts and insignificant flowers

Poinsettia, pink bracts and insignificant flowers