Cyclamen persicum ‘Silver Leaf’
The original seed was collected in the Lebanese hills south of Tripoli by Jim Archibald (JCA 1050) in the 1960s, where the plants could be found growing in the drystone walls of abandoned terraces. Some seeds were given to Melvyn Jope who selected, and with Peter Moore developed this exceptional silver leaf form.
Melvyn recalls – ‘Jim asked me if I was interested in some old seed of C. persicum and handed me a typical brown seed envelope sealed with a paper clip. The fact that the paper clip had left rust marks on the packet was evidence of the packet’s vintage. I sowed the seed and got surprisingly good germination. In the second year I was very pleased to see a good range of leaf patterns, some with an excellent silver background.
I thought that these were worthy of special care so kept those plants back for use in seed production. It soon became apparent that I had more plants than I could provide growing space for and so asked Peter Moore if he could help. After a couple of years Peter was producing consistently good quality silver plants. Some of those plants were sold at Tile Barn Nursery and at Cyclamen Society shows.’