Cyclamen purpurascens

 It is native also to Hungary, but I've never seen it in the wild as yet. I have seen it in Croatia near the Plitvice Lakes in the woods, where there were beautiful clumps with rich flower buckets in early September.

I swapped the tubers with a gardener from Linz, Austria. He has many in his garden, and sent me 8 large tubers and 6 seedlings  by mail, packed carefully in moss and a perforated plastic bag. All are alive and feeling well. I gave some to my friends, these are also thriving.

Two weeks ago I told it did not flower too well this year. Now I see that this was wrong, it was just a little later compared to last year's flowering. Now there are many flowers and their colors are much better than a year ago. And also the seedlings are flowering already! At nights their scent fulfill the balcony.

I cultivate the large tubers in a 20 cm crock pot. I made a humous-gritty-sandy compost for them and this is covered with a 2 cm layer of dolomite grit. I water it only once a week in summer, but I give then a copious amount of water. They are very hardy also in pot, but I have to be careful the compost not to be too wet then. I used to pack the pot in paper or plunge it in pine needle or dry peat to the rim. Sometimes the leaves were frozen, but they recovered and flowered well every summer. The seedlings spent the winters in the frost free staircase until now.

They are put in shade during hot summer days, but this spring I thought I would let them to get sunshine until the trees leaf. They live in deciduous woods where they are shined below the bare trees in early spring.

I have many seeds every year, but I give it to seed exchanges, until now I've never tried to sow them.