Care for Cyclamen Plants
Friday January 12, 2007
Perhaps you received a cyclamen plant as a holiday gift, and now you're wondering about the proper care for cyclamen plants. Luckily, you won't need a green thumb, as the care for cyclamen plants isn't all that demanding. Need information on the proper potting soil, water, humidity, fertilizer, light and temperature? No problem. Marie Iannotti, About's Gardening Guide, tells you about all that and more in this article on the care for cyclamen plants.
Comments
My Cyclamen has a small ball at the end of the stems I thought they would be a flower, One had dried almost completely and I opened it and little seeds were inside. I guess it is in the dormat stage and I did repot it but am curious about what these things are.
Celane,
I think you already guessed what these balls are on your cyclamen plants: seed pods.
I have two Cyclamen plants at work and neither ever goes into a dormant state! The pink one has continually bloomed for at least 6 years and is full of leaves. The red one has bloomed as well but without many leaves. The “cones” that the leaves and blooms come from are now about 2 inches high. I’m concenred that they are getting to large and I should be doing something for them but haven’t found any information to help. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Janet
I have just been given a cyclamen to try to save… it has only a few leaves yet and those are on gangly stems. The bulb looks like it could have some fungus or something on it. I’d like to save its life… any thoughts?
Chickadee,
Sorry, I don’t have much expertise with the house plant, cyclamen. Look at the list of trouble-shooting problems on this site.
I have three cyclamen plants that are doing OK. I have read that they should be watered from the bottom. Does anyone know if they would do well if I planted them in violet pots? These are the double pots with the water in the bottom half.
What can you do with the seed pod? Start a new plant?
Shirley,
The following is a distillation of the remarks on propagating cyclamen from seed on Cyclamen.org:
1.Sow cyclamen seed as soon as it is ripe (it will turn light brown in its pod when ripe).
2.Soak the cyclamen seed in warm water for about 1 day before sowing.
3.The container in which you’re attempting to germinate the cyclamen seeds should be located in a shady place.
4.Keep soil in container moist
5.Best temperature for cyclamen seeds to germinate: 55-60ºF.
It seems my plant is going dormant. Do I need to prune off any of the wilting stems?
Pip,
Here’s what cylcamen.org has to say (in response to a reader’s question) about care for cyclamen plants that have gone dormant in summer:
“Yours are probably florists cultivars of Cyclamen persicum, which is a spring flower-er, but the cultivars will flower all through the growing season. Putting it simply, your plant is going dormant for the summer, and you should stop watering until September/Early October.”
I think I may have overwatered my cyclamen as the leaves are starting to yellow and look strange. Have I rotted the tuber? Is there anything I can do to save it?
Hannah,
If you’ve truly rotted the cyclamen tuber, there’s nothing you can do. If you’re not sure whether the tuber is rotted, re-pot your cyclamen in fresh potting soil, go easy on the watering for a while, and see how it responds.