I like plants that don’t require mollycoddling, and cyclamen coum is just such a plant. The shops are full of cyclamen tempting us to buy for Christmas but generally speaking, the larger and more showy the flowers on the cyclamen, the less likely it is to be suitable for outdoor use all year. Cyclamen coum is an excellent hardy variety to grow and flowers reliably in late December, sometimes even peeking through a layer of snow. They will spread into a carpet of pink and white flowers that will continue through to March. Although individual flowers are just a few inches tall, each plant invariably produces dozens of flowers, so it gives a valuable display of colour and interesting leaf just when we most need it.