Getting The Most From Your Cyclamen
Cyclamen are gorgeous, blooming plants that love cool temperatures and
bright light. If you’ve ever visited San Francisco in winter you’ve
probably seen them blooming their heads off.
In New England , the florist’s cyclamen, Cyclamen persicum, appears on the market in early October and is usually sold through the holidays. Those purchased early are sometimes more likely to last well than later ones because they won’t have suffered such a drastic change of conditions between the grower’s greenhouse, the store and your home. But whenever you buy it, you should be able to expect continuous bloom for 2 to 3 months.
When choosing a cyclamen be sure to select one with only a few flowers open. Hold the pot at eye level and check to make sure there are lots of buds tucked underneath the foliage to develop and bloom later. The flower stems should stand straight up and the leaves should be firm and succulent.
Cyclamen are generally produced in 3 or 5-inch pots. The thick, dark green leaves are round to heart-shaped and are marbled with silver. The flowers are perched at the top of the stems with recurved petals. They look as if they have been turned “inside out”. Cyclamen flowers can be pure white, deep red or various shades of pink, mauve and purple. Some have white edging on colored petals and some petals are delicately fringed. Miniature cyclamen tend to bloom longer and are sometimes fragrant. They also tend to be a little more heat tolerant.
For the most part I consider cyclamen to be a temporary houseplant. I bring them home in the fall, enjoy them until late March when they stop blooming, and then either throw them out (horrors!) or pass them along to a friend with a greenhouse. Cyclamen actually prefer a cool house (no warmer than 68 degrees F during the day cooling to 55 or even 50 degrees F at night). A cool, drafty window suits them just fine. They generally like an east or north exposure, but in the depths of winter when light is minimal I put them in south-facing windows.
Cyclamen prefer to be kept moist. They grow from tubers that are half buried in the potting mixture. You can water the soil from above, but be sure to keep moisture away from the area on the tuber where the leaf and flower stems grow. You can also water by filling the saucer beneath the plant’s pot. If after half an hour the water is not sucked up, then dispose of it. Cyclamen should not sit in water or they will rot. They do like it humid, however, so whatever you can do to increase humidity is beneficial. Setting plants on top of a tray or saucer filled with pebbles and water can help maintain humidity.
Remove dead flowers as they fade. It is important to remove the entire flower stalk along with the flower. You can do this by giving stems a sharp tug. If a sharp tug doesn’t remove them, wait another day and try again. You don’t want to risk yanking out a chunk of tuber along with other healthy leaves. Damaged or yellowing leaves can be removed the same way.
Fertilize your cyclamen with a water-soluble fertilizer recommended for use on indoor plants. Mix it at half strength and apply it every 3 or 4 weeks. Don’t overfeed as your plants may then be more likely to produce foliage than flowers.
In late winter cyclamen stop blooming and the leaves turn yellow as the plants go dormant. At this point you should stop watering. If you want to try re-blooming, set cyclamen outdoors in part sun for the summer, feed and water them regularly and then bring them back inside in September. They’ll usually start forming new flower buds again soon. Unfortunately, this re-bloom may not be as spectacular as the first time. Flowers may be fewer, smaller and lighter colored. Still, it is fun to try to get them to bloom again.
If you don’t want to re-bloom your florist’s cyclamen, how about growing some fall or spring blooming cyclamen outside? Cyclamen are native to the Mediterranean ; they come from parts of Europe , western Asia and parts of North Africa . They belong to the Primrose family, and typically grow in Beech woodlands, through scrub and rocky areas and in alpine meadows where they flower in snow meltwater. In cultivation, there are some species that are hardy enough to be grown in New Hampshire (hardy to zone 4). If, like me, you like cyclamen at any time of the year, then try growing both. I can guarantee you won’t be sorry!
Call the UNH Cooperative Extension’s Family, Home & Garden Education Center ’s Info-Line toll free at 1-877-398-4769 for “Practical Solutions to Everyday Questions.” Trained volunteers are available to answer your questions Monday through Friday from 9:00am to 2:00pm .
By Margaret Hagen, Extension Educator, University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, Hillsborough County
Call the UNH Cooperative Extension's Family, Home & Garden Education Center 's Info-Line toll-free at 1-877-3984769 for "Practical Solutions to Everyday Questions." Trained volunteers are available to answer your questions Monday through Friday from 9 am to 2 pm .