I bought this Cyclamen hederifolium yesterday in a plant sale in someone's garden. I expect a garden centre would have put it to one side as a not very promising commercial proposition. But for me it's very promising, ideal in fact. The pot contains numerous seed pods which are nearly ripe...

 By this point the flowers have been fertilised and the stems emanating from the tuber are coiled up rather like springs with the pods on the end. It's possible to collect the seeds when the pods are ready to open and propagate them in pots. I will simply plant it in a spot I have in mind which I would like to be colonised by C. hederifolium and see what happens. The seeds have a sticky, sugary coating which attracts ants and other insects as well as birds and small mammals thereby acting as a dispersal mechanism.

 

 C. hederifolium comes into flower in late summer/early autumn. Reversing the usual order of things the leaves start to appear towards the end of the flowering period and remain in leaf over winter. Sometimes called the Ivy-Leaved Cyclamen they can form quite a decent ground cover, not to mention being one of the last plants of the year to flower in shade.