Cyclamens

For winter color, I've decided to try Cyclamens (Cyclamen persicum) in my front yard, three-tiered bed.  My beds tend to be too shady for pansies, violas or ornamental kale/cabbage.  But on a recent episode of Central Texas Gardener, they mentioned that Cyclamens can handle shade.

To prepare the beds, I removed the existing Begonias (Begonia x semperflorens-cultorum) and then used a garden fork to break up the dirt.  Then, as I came across them, I pulled as many of the oak root sprouts as I could (which was a lot!).  Next, I added some peat moss to enrich the soil and some decomposed granite to keep it loose.  Afterwards, I worked in a generous amount of compost to give the annuals a good boost.

Finally, I planted a mixture of lighter and darker pink shades in the two lower tiers.

Though I planted 20 Cyclamens, I'm thinking I need a couple of more of the plants (darn - another trip to the store).  Hopefully, as they grow, they'll fill in the beds with some good winter color.

Gotta Get:

• Japanese Root Iris (Iris tectorum): Have considered it for quite a while; finally decided it was one I wanted in my garden.
• Pittosporum Creme De Mint (Pittosporum tobira 'Shima'): As this variety only grows a little over two foot is size, I'm think having one in a sunnier spot would be great (of course, "sunnier" is very relative in my garden).
• Golden Oakleaf Hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia 'Little Honey'): Have just started playing with the Oakleaf Hydrangeas by having the variety 'Alice' planted.  Really like the chartreuse colored leaves on this 'Little Honey' variety, plus the fact that it tends to be somewhat smaller than many of the other varieties.