Cyclamen hederifolium
Most of us may associate cyclamens with late winter and early spring, but this variety, with its swept back pastel-pink flowers over a darker base, provides a cheery display in mid-autumn, growing to just 15cm (6in) tall. The variety 'albiflorum' has white flowers, produced from the flat tubers before the marbled leaves emerge.
Their stalks coil, bringing the developing seedpods to ground level, where they will self seed if left undisturbed. Autumn-flowering cyclamen should be planted in summer near the soil surface in well-drained soil which has been enriched with well-rotted leaf mould. They go ideally in dappled shade under trees and shrubs, where the ground will be dry during the summer months.