JOLLY cyclamen are now available in an ever greater colour palette and, boy, do they bring joy to this dour season — inside or out.

The purple-pink-coloured cyclamen, coum, remains my favourite ever since a winter trip to France many years ago where the wooded grounds were bathed in swathes of colour. These garden miniatures are more often than not propagated from tubers.

It seems tough love but in the summer when the tubers are dormant they should be dug up and divided into sections with a clean knife leaving a growing eye on each.

They should be planted just below ground level. Established bulbs can plump up to two inches or more in size and force their way to the surface.

I have several groups outside and they can spread far and wide.

When I was clearing an area of undergrowth, I discovered a surprise clump in a wooded area a full 300 yards from the main enclaves.

Seed can be harvested from spent flowers but propagation that way takes time to produce flowering plants of any size.

Much better to find a friendly enthusiast or invest in a purchase although to buy in quantity is not especially cheap.

They like to grow in shaded, well-drained areas under trees or in a rockery.

Their preference for shade makes them ideally suited to growing indoors as a compact potted houseplant when they should never be over-watered.

Cyclamen grow well in a variety of soils and a wide pH level, preferring the medium sightly on the acid side.

In outdoor areas prone to remaining wet, digging out and adding grit below the planting hole will help reduce the risk of rot.

These are, surprisingly, members of the primrose family and are valued not just for their colour but for their striped, heart-shaped foliage.

It is the shape of the leaves that make them a perennial favourite as a Valentine’s Day love gift.

Rescued from Greece

I SHOULDN’T have done it — and my partner tried to stop me — but, armed only with a spoon, I dug up two large bulbs from the Kefalonian rock-hard soil two summers ago.

Now, I wouldn’t normally advocate taking plants from the wild, but these light-bulb sized and shaped specimens were in the way of a dirt track being created as an access to a house and many had already been squished by the excavator.

There is always a danger of importing disease when bringing in plants or material from abroad — you only have to look at the elm disease kindly passed to us by Dutch timber merchants — but I did take precautions.

The dry outer bulb casing was removed and any vestige of soil brushed away to ensure there was no risk of importing Greek disease.

But what have I got, I do not know because these jumbo bulbs were rescued in blistering high summer when they were not in leaf let alone flower.

In their first year in Blighty, the bulbs — clearly shocked by where they found themselves — only produced a couple of straggly leaves.

In the wake of this cracking summer, the foliage is lush and dark green and I am looking forward, hopefully, to flower spikes.

I am expecting to see the white globes of Greek wild onion with its star-shaped florets and green eyes, similar to allium Rosenbachianum album. I have previously seen them flowering in other parts of Greece but never excavated a bulb.

Now is a good time to plant allium of all kinds and bargain packets are available widely, including my two favourites, Purple Sensation and Caila.

I will let you know how my Grecian bulbs develop.

Top tips

  • Now is the time to buy an electric propagator. There are expensive thermostatic models out there but my cheapie one-temp model has always served me well.
  • Jolly winter flowering pansies should have their dead heads removed to encourage further flowering.
  • Now is a good time to plant bare-root roses — unless the ground is frozen. The sunniest position is best.
  • Now is a good time to trim hedges. It’ll soon be spring (honest!) and birds will be looking for nesting sites soon.
  • Have a care for those birds in these cold times. Feeders should be regularly cleaned and topped up and birds love to pick at fat balls.
  • Raspberry canes can go in now ready for summer.
  • New growth on autumn fruiting raspberries will be stimulated by cutting them down to ground level.
  • Use cold winter evenings to work out a planting plan and browse through seed catalogues over a cuppa or something more warming.