Cyclamen Persicum Alba

This white form of Persian cyclamen carries elegant reflexed blooms above heart-shaped foliage patterned in silver and green. Wild Cyclamen persicum is the ancestor of the modern florist's cyclamen, yet the species retains a lighter, more graceful habit and often a sweet scent reminiscent of lily of the valley. Flowers appear through winter and spring, when their clean white colouring is particularly welcome under glass. Native populations occur around the eastern Mediterranean, growing among rocks, scrub and open woodland. Frost tender but long lived, it makes a refined cool-greenhouse or conservatory specimen.