On 17-04-03 06:16 PM, Kathleen Sayce <kathleen.sayce@gmail.com> wrote: > I garden in sand (fine beach sand, acidic, and well drained) and have > cyclamen all over my yard (yay! ants). Never water the plants. I also > do not amend the soil. They are wet all winter due to rain, growing > in soil that drains quickly, and dry all summer. Fresh water beach or salt water beach? It makes a difference because the latter will have endless shell fragments in it, providing an equally endless supply of calcium — which is good for cyclamen. Cyclamen species need relatively wet winters and relatively dry summers to do well. In contrast to Kathleen's garden, mine is on a delicious clay in a low spot vis a vis the surrounding terrain; I get standing water in the lowest part many winters. But it's dry in summer. For many years I considered the ideal site for cyclamen is in the duff that forms under conifers, heavily laced with lime to cut the acidity. Miracle of miracles, my clay is NOT sticky when wet, unlike the blue marine clay so common in the Pacific NW. And the ants have performed miracles: the driveway to my house runs the length of a 300' lane, and there is Cyclamen repandum all through it now.