Plant of the Week: Cyclamen

There’s one very good reason to look forward to the arrival of winter each year: it’s the season for cyclamen, among the very daintiest and prettiest of all cold-weather flowers. These low-growing, shade-loving woodlanders are instantly recognisable with their swept-back shuttlecock blooms in pink, red and white; Cyclamen hederifolium, the larger of the two main species, flowers in late autumn into winter, then produces its leaves afterwards; diminutive little Cyclamen coum produces leaves first, then flowers from January onwards. Both have foliage every bit as gorgeous as the flowers, a deep glossy green intricately marbled in silver, carpeting the ground all winter long.