Cyclamen, a marvelous flower

Petals flipped upwards like a flying skirt, over leaves marked with intricate patterns that are worth admiring even out of bloom: cyclamen is one of the favourite winter-flowering plants, indoors from early autumn right up to late spring. Give it a luminous spot away from direct sunrays and cool evenings, and it will bloom year after year.

Cyclamen at a glance

Name	Cyclamen
Family	Primulaceae
Type	spring bulb
Height	2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 cm)
Flowering	end of fall to early spring
Exposure	part sun
Soil	light and well drained

Care, planting and watering will help you make it bloom year after year.

• Read also: Keep your cyclamen lush all winter long

Planting cyclamen

Cyclamen, though often classified as a bulb flower, is actually a tuber. The roots look like flat, round patties.

Planting cyclamen tubers

It is recommended to plant cyclamen end of summer or beginning of fall. Plant each tuber 3 to 6 inches (10 to 20 cm) from the next and bury them more or less 1¼ to 1½ inches (3 to 4 cm) deep.

Important! Make sure your tubers are right-side up! Topside should have a few eyes or buds, bottom side is where roots fan out.

It can be set in a pot, garden box and also in semi-shaded flower beds. In any case, only a very thin cover is needed for the bulb, with garden earth mixed with soil mix. Don’t bury it too deep: there should be no more than a half-inch (1.5 cm) of soil atop it.

For cyclamen purchased with flowers already, check that there are new buds forming, this will ensure the blooming will last longer.

Sowing cyclamen

Sowing is quite easy. Simply recover seeds when seed capsules open up and put them in nursery pots with soil mix.

• Beforehand, you can soak the seeds for several hours in lukewarm water to speed germination.

How to settle cyclamen indoors

Favor a luminous spot but not in the path of sunrays.

Avoid having nearby heat sources, such as radiators or a South-facing window.

The ideal temperature is around 65 to 70°F (16 to 18°C).

Cyclamen can’t stand heat. It appreciates cool evenings.

With these growing conditions, your cyclamen will bloom from early autumn up to late spring.

• An unheated bedroom, a landing or a bright enclosed porch suits cyclamen far better than a warm living room.
• Give the pot a quarter turn at each watering so the flower stems do not all lean windowward.

Pruning and caring for cyclamen

Remove wilted or yellowing flowers regularly (deadheading).
For that, remove the entire stem that bears the flower, rotating it just a bit in your hand and tugging it off with a sharp pull.

This twisting and tugging step is useful because if a portion of the wilted stem is left behind, it might rot and make the bulb rot.

• To have spectacular blooming, add flower plant fertilizer once a week.

• Keep both water and fertiliser off the crown in the middle of the tuber, because drops sitting there invite grey mould.
• On hardy cyclamen planted under shrubs, let the foliage yellow and die back untouched; those leaves are stocking up the tuber for the next flowering.

Watering Cyclamen

Indoors

Wait for soil to dry out thoroughly between 2 watering sessions, and avoid any excess water that might drown the plant.

• Watering 2 or 3 times a week should be enough.
• In winter, once a week or even once a fortnight is probably more adequate.

Outdoors

Natural rainfall should be enough, except in case of strong heat or long-lasting dry spells.

• After watering, once the soil has drawn up what it needs, tip out any water left standing in the saucer, since leaving roots sitting in water can cause rot.
• Many houseplant care guides recommend letting tap water sit until it reaches room temperature before watering, on the grounds that very cold water may stress tropical species, though plants’ sensitivity varies.

What to do after blooming is over

At the beginning of spring, the plant will enter a dormant phase.

It will be possible to have it bloom again in the following fall, if you keep the bulb at rest during the summer.

• For that, store it in a dry place that is rather cool and dark.
• As soon as the weather starts turning cool, generally in early autumn or mid-autumn, it should start blooming again.

• Hardy cyclamen growing in the ground need no lifting at all.
• Feel the tuber before restarting growth: firm and plump is healthy, while surface mould can usually be wiped or cut away, so discard only tubers that are widely soft, shrivelled or rotten.

Common problems with cyclamen

This plant, both indoors and outside, won’t often run into problems.

Indoors, main issues are over and underwatering, and also too much sun exposure and dry air.

Remember, it’s a shade plant!

Cyclamen leaves dry up

• It’s a bit as if they were burnt. This means there was too much sun. Protect your plants from the sun’s rays.

Leaves wither

• If your plant looks sad, it is either due to excess watering or to nearby heat sources such as radiators.

Cyclamen leaves turn yellow

• Add fertilizer, this is most certainly connected to lack of nutrients.

Leaves are spotted

• Probably due to excess moisture. You must be careful not to wet either the leaves nor the flowers of the cyclamen.

Leaves lose their shine

• If they look a bit pale, remove wilted flowers as they start to wither and provide fertilizer once a week.

Reading cyclamen leaves: symptom, cause and cure

Cyclamen rarely runs into trouble, and when it does the leaves tell you exactly what is wrong. Match what you see to the cause below before changing anything else.

Indoors, almost every problem comes back to watering, heat or sun: remember it is a shade plant.

Which cyclamen to choose

Florist cyclamen bred from Cyclamen persicum are the ones sold in bloom for the house, while the hardy species make weather-proof ground cover under trees. The table sets the widely sold types side by side so you can match the plant to the place.

Learn more about Cyclamen

Cyclamen is one of the favorite winter-blooming flowers.

It’s fun little flowers seem to have their petals flipped upwards like Marylin Monroe’s skirt in the iconic “flying skirt” photo.

But Cyclamen is also connected to another “Mary” person in history: the virgin Mary.

• Did the Mother Mary grow Cyclamen, too?

Cyclamen varieties

There are hundreds of cyclamen plants. They differ in flower color, leaf shape, size, and blooming period. Outdoors, Cyclamen coum is great to resist deep cold freezing. Indoors, ivy-leaf cyclamen boasts intricate patterns on its leaves: nice to admire even when not blooming!

Certain Cyclamen varieties are used to produce fragrance that is added to perfume. It has a delicate, watery feeling that is similar to the refreshing effect a slice of cucumber has on a hot summer day.

Where did cyclamen get its name?

Today, the scientific name, “Cyclamen”, comes directly from Latin. The “cycle” part of the name refers to the near perfect circle the flowers show when they’re lifted up. It actually comes from Ancient Greek, “κύκλος” or “kuklos”, which also means cycle. In many languages, the scientific name is used for the plant even in common language, which is rather rare!

Cooking with cyclamen

Interestingly, in some areas of Greece, some recipes call for cyclamen leaves to be filled with delicious stuffing. But be careful! Cyclamen tubers are toxic!

Read also:

• Planting bulb plants

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