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.
Related Articles
Related Searches cyclamen plants
Explore Landscaping
Must Reads
Most Popular
©2012 About.com. All rights reserved.
A part of The New York Times Company.
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.
My cyclamen is 2 yrs old. It has the most beautiful pink flowers and lots of leaves. I never ever watered it from the bottom. I just water the soil on top and I also put the Miracle Gro little sticks in once a month.. 3 … during growing season and use African Violet Miracle Gro soil. I have kept it in a clay pot with the clay dish underneath because I believe they breathable for plants and much better than man made plastic . It’s been happy as a house plant. I just transplanted it into a bigger clay pot from the nursery. My problem is mostly with my kitty, Beanie Baby ! I keep it high on books and things.. but.. she still tries to get it and I can’t find something high enough to protect it.
I kept it on my patio all last summer . Good luck
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.
My cyclaman is about 6 years old and now it looks like it is trying to split; it has two “heads”. Do I try to split it or just leave it alone. It is a very special plant to me as if came from my Mother’s funeral and I want to keep it alive. Help!
Jan,
If your cyclamen plant is too big for its pot, you can either repot it or divide it. To divide, carefully slice through the crown with a sharp knife. In dividing cyclamen plants, the objective is to come away with separate tubers, each of which has shoots attached to it.
Those little balls that don’t bloom need to be removed: simply twist (do not cut) the stem until it breaks off. Do not pull or you will damage the plants system — just twist it off.
My cyclamen I just received a few weeks ago is looking very bad…all of the leaves and buds are drooping over the side of the pot and are all very soft. I am not sure if I over watered it or what…I was doing like I saw and after repotting watered it from the bottom but then a couple days later it started drooping. Have I killed it, please help!
Peggee,
You mentioned that you repotted your cyclamen plant, so perhaps it is suffering from transplant shock. If that’s the case, your only option is to be patient with it. You’re smart to be watering it from the bottom and should continue to do so.
I see that several people think it best or smart to water from the bottom with this plant. I was just given one and I’m wondering if placing it in a self-watering pot would be best? And can you recommend a good liquid fertilizer?
Aunt York,
I don’t happen to use self-watering pots, but I’ll comment on the fertilizer. Any low-nitrogen fertilizer should be fine. On any of the popular brands, look for an NPK of 5-10-5 or 5-10-10.
I received a cyclamen for Christmas. Now the older leaves are going yellow and drying; the new leaves go crinkly (like Savoy cabbage) , with a white band as soon as they come out. What should I do?
I received a cyclamen as a gift, I’m not familiar with it, and I read the recommended instructions. But I can’t plant it outside because it’s not my property and incidentally, I live in Hawaii, so the climate is not apt to change, barring an apocalypse. So any advice on how to keep this thing alive?
Try your best to mimic the conditions described in the article (linked to above) as being optimal for cyclamen care. Also, even if you can’t plant it outside, you can still “give it some fresh air” by bringing the pot outside.
I bought three beautiful cyclamen plants the last week in November. I left them in the same pots they were planted in. I watered them when the soil felt dry. A week and a half later the leaves on one of the plants began to yellow and now all three plants have yellow leaves and are drying up. What can I do?
Carol,
Yellow leaves can be due to over-watering, but your post would seem to indicate that you have been watering properly. So let’s consider another possibility. According to The Cyclamen Society, cyclamen plants can be tricked into entering a period of dormancy if their wintertime home is too hot, so maybe try placing them in a cooler place.
I received a cyclamen this summer, and planted it in my garden, it is so beautiful. Will it survive a zone 3 winter or should I bring it in.
Denise,
That would depend on the type of cyclamen. Is there a tag on your plant with the botanical name? Lacking that, though, the best guess here is that your cyclamen probably wouldn’t survive in zone 3.
I bought a cyclamen plant a couple of days ago and on the day i got it it had a lot of green leaves and flowers.As soon as I got home i watered it and I sprayed water on its leaves and I kept it on my desk near a window. After a couple of days I noticed that quite a lot of the leaves are yellow and most of them were being eaten by something.I was thinking that maybe it was because I sprayed the leaves with water.It was a shock for me because the day before it had nothing and today quite a lot of the leaves were dieing.I cut off the leaves hoping that it would go away and I noticed that under the leaves were red spots and on the leaves white dots.Also, when I came close to the plant it smelled quite weird. Can someone please tell me what do to because I want to save this plant !
Cely,
Your reporting of the “red spots” on your cyclamen plant throws up a red flag for me: it could be spider mites. If it is spider mites, you will have to kill them by spraying, etc.
My Cyclamen plant has white cottony spots on some of the leaves. Is this normal?
Kathy,
I never like to hear the words “white cottony spots” in connection with plants, as that sounds a lot like mealy bug.