Cyclamen Bulbs and Flowers

If you received a Cyclamen this year, and flowering has stopped, it is time to withhold water to put the tuber to rest. Leave the tuber in the soil during the artificial drought, which is induced to keep the tuber dormant and resting. Store the pot in the coolest place you have during the summer perhaps in your basement. Occasionally splash some water in the pot so that the soil does not become bone dry… otherwise, the tuber will shrivel.

In August knock the soil from the pot. Remove all dead leaves, and part of the old roots and soil. Give the pot a thorough scrubbing with soap and hot water before repotting. I have always used the same soil mixture for cyclamen as for gloxinias… loose and spongy, but rich in organic matter. Equal parts good garden loam, clean coarse sand, and coarse peatmoss are the essential ingredients in my potting mixture. A handful of steamed bone meal added to each pot keeps the plants in good condition through the blooming season.

Rcplant with the top of the tuber showing about a half inch above the soil line. Keep the soil moist, and in a few weeks growth will become active. Cyclamen must be grown in a cool, moist atmosphere. Allow enough sun to reach the plant so that the leaves grow a healthy green on stems that are sturdy and compact. Lack of moisture in the air about the plant, and extreme temperatures will result in a pale plant that produces few leaves, no blossoms, and it will eventually die.

Temperature Is Important

A daytime temperature of 65 degrees, with perhaps a rise to 70 during the warmest part of the day, and then a drop to 50 or 55 degrees at night should prove ideal. Perhaps you have a sunny bedroom which you do not use that could be kept closed from the rest of the house so that it would be cool. When the plant is in full bloom, it can be brought into a warm room for decoration for a few hours, or perhaps a day or so. When cyclamen are hot and dry, leaves turn yellow quickly and buds and blossoms soon disappear.

Cyclamen are grown easily in the cool greenhouse. My greenhouse has always housed a collection of tropical plants, and consequently it actually is a “hot house.” I do have a ground bench along the north side of my greenhouse that receives plenty of light, but it is constantly cool. Pots of cyclamen sunk in this thrive during the winter and produce many blossoms. Azaleas thrive in this same bench which is but a few feet from rex begonias, gloxinias, episcias and other tropical plants.

Normally cyclamen tubers are discarded after they bloom and new plants are grown from seeds which come into full flower from 15 to 18 months after sowing. Normally this planting is made during August or September. The seeds are large enough to be easy to handle, and they are not at all difficult to grow. Plant them a quarter inch deep in regular potting soil. Keep moist and cool (50-60 degrees) and germination will occur in four to eight weeks. When they are large enough, they may be moved to 3 inch pots, and the following summer moved to 5 or 6 inch bulb pans where they will give a beaiutiful display of color during winter and spring.

Propagation by Division

Cyclamen can also be propagated by cutting apart the tubers like a potato… each section must have at least one leaf or “eye”. This may be done just after the plants are through blooming. Slice the corm into sections. Dust the cut places with a rooting hormone, and root them in moist sand. A cool north window is an ideal place to root the cuttings. Make a “tent” of clear plastic over the cuttings to increase humidity around them.

After they are well rooted, pot in three inch pots of regular potting soil. They may be summered by sinking the pots to their rims in a shaded, cool part of the garden. Keep them moist at all times, well fed and in good growth. They will bloom the following winter.

Sometimes a cyclamen that seems anemic and sickly may have nematodes. Nematodes cause knots to form on roots, and eventually food is cut off from the plant. If you buy bagged potting soil it is already sterilized so you can avoid nematodes.

Cyclamen mites deform the leaves and flowers. Try Neem oil as a preventive treatment. If your plant does become infested, burn it immediately. Aphids feed on young leaves and buds. Tiny black, threadlike thrips give the undersides of the leaves and stems a scaly look, and streak the flowers. Red spiders are inclined to attack plants growing in a room that is too hot and dry.

Cyclamen stems and leaves are very succulent and full of water. If one of the stems rots and falls over others, it may cause rot on healthy growth. Watch your plants and keep bad leaves and stems trimmed off.

A cyclamen received at Christmas time and placed in a cool east window where the air is moist, should continue to bloom through the winter. If buds seem to stop coming in February, keep the plant in the same place and fertilize it regularly with a house plant fertilizer. Buds will appear again in March or April.

Related Articles

• Greenhouse Checklist for November - Avoid overwatering Christmas cactus this month; toward the end of November put in sunny window and give more water and start regular feeding with a well-balanced plant food. On the 1st and 15th give a feeding of fertilizer to budding cyclamen. Plant some geranium seeds. Germination is rapid, the seedling are varied and they bloom in a
• Add Gloxinias for Indoor Color - Gloxinias, so gorgeous and in such an array of colors and contours, can be grown in your indoor garden. They are not as fragile as they appear nor are they more difficult to handle than other flowering house plants. Florist gloxinias (botanically Sinningia) are the products of years of plant breeding. Their ancestors, the small-flowered sinningias,