Cyclamen Growing in the Garden

Question:I’ve seen cyclamen flower outdoors in neighbors garden last year and they looked very hardy. I’d like to grow some of the cyclamen bulbs and then maybe try growing some from seeds. Can you give me any advice on growing cyclamen outdoors in the landscape and also as a potted plant for use indoors? Jenifer, Falls Church, Virginia

Answer: Our first Baby Cyclamen bulb was obtained in an unusual manner. At a country fair in Connecticut a fellow exhibitor had three plants on display. They were in full bloom with about 30 flowers on each. At first he would not part with one for love or money but finally my brother persuaded him to trade one for a rare begonia. From this original bulb, we have grown many hundreds of plants.

Now, when frost brightens the air and maple leaves are tinged with red, we look forward with increasing eagerness to the flowers of our Baby Cyclamen, exquisite flowers less than half an inch wide on stems 3 to 4 inches high.

These delicate pink little gems, native to the low hills of the Mediterranean from southern France to Sicily, are lovely both for house culture and for the rock garden as far north as New Jersey. Many are fragrant. These we isolate to increase our collection of sweet scented ones.

Flowers Before Foliage

Unlike the house plant cyclamen, the first flowers of this variety (Cyclamen neapolitanum) are produced before the foliage appears. When buds are well-formed atop the bulb, we apply water and repot in a good alkaline humus soil. The soil mixture is very important. We use equal parts sand, humus, garden loam and well decayed cow manure or peat and add to each bushel of this a 4-inch potful of ground limestone.

Plants do best in partial shade in an east or west exposure. They need ample water during the growing season, thrive in an indoor temperature of from 60 to 70 degrees and are seldom bothered by insect pests. Mealy bugs, which occasionally appear on the lower leaf stems, may be destroyed with a strong soap sud spray or any good insecticide.

Flowers last over a period of six weeks. Then, beautifully mottled leaves mature and completely cover the bulb. Often the blooms self-pollinate but, if seed is desired, a touch of the finger from flower to flower when the sun shines on the plant in the morning will assure a good set of seed. This must be done for three or four days in succession as flowers open.

Watching seed mature is fascinating. From the tip of the dried flower, the small seedpod begins to curl back slowly down to the stem to the bulb where it rests, hugging the bulb closely through the long winter. There it continues to grow to the size of a large pea. In early spring the ‘little spring-like stem unfurls and the hard seedpod opens to scatter seed away from the mother bulb.

In early spring, too, the old, outside leaves yellow. This is the time to withhold water, gradually, until all leaves have faded. Now the potted bulb is placed in a cool airy place until flower buds come.

Growing from Seed a Slow Process

To grow this cyclamen from seed is a slow process. Seed is sown, as soon as gathered in early spring, in a very light mixture of peat, sand and soil. It should be covered to twice its depth and kept moist at all times. The flat in which it is sown should be placed in partial shade in a temperature of 70 degrees.

Fresh seed germinates in about three weeks. When it does, it is brought into full sun and kept watered for about four months or until little bulblets have formed and have 2 to 3 leaves. These are then transplanted into small pots and barely covered with the same light soil used for the seed.

In two years the reward will be two or three flowers. Finest plants, those producing as many as 30 flowers or more, are grown from five year-old bulbs which, by the way, should never be planted below the surface of the soil.

By J. L. Martin

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