Cyclamen plants can flower for months at a time, making them a popular winter houseplants. Follow these cyclamen care tips for advice on choosing, watering, and re-potting.
Cyclamen are wonderful winter houseplants. Here are 5 tips to assure that your cyclamen plant is healthy, happy and blooming this winter and beyond.
Cyclamen Care | Grow Stunning Winter Houseplants Photo Credit : Dreamstime
Cyclamen plants grow from small tubers and are native to the Mediterranean and parts of Europe. Over the last several decades, they have been hybridized and become popular houseplants. Known for their variegated, heart shaped leaves and stunning winter blooms in various shades of pink, red, light purple, fuchsia and white, cyclamen boast an exotic and romantic appearance. At first glance, one may think this stunning botanical may be complicated to grow, though that is not the case. Under the right conditions these plants will continue to flower for months at a time, allowing for a pop of color and classic beauty in the home throughout the winter.
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CYCLAMEN CARE | TIPS AND ADVICE
CHOOSING A CYCLAMEN PLANT
Select a plant from a nursery or garden center that has many unopened clusters of buds and full, non-drooping leaves.
WHERE TO PUT CYCLAMEN PLANTS
Once you have selected a plant, choose a location in your home that receives filtered sunlight, such as on a stand near a window with a sheer curtain that allows the light to shine through without over-powering the plant. Room temperature should be between 65-70 degrees.
HOW OFTEN TO WATER CYCLAMEN
Keep the root ball moist while the cyclamen is in bloom. An ideal way to water this plant is from below. Place water in a tray or plant saucer and allow the roots to take up the water. Avoid watering from the top if possible. Keep the blooms and buds from becoming wet, if possible. Do not leave the plant sitting in water.
CYCLAMEN MAINTENANCE
Keep the soil moist from below. When the leaves turn yellow or brown, remove. When the flowers die, remove. Eventually the cyclamen will go into a dormant state mimicking death. This will usually happen after a few months of continuous blooming. At this time, allow the leaves and flowers to drop and move the potted plant to a cooler, dark spot (about 55 degrees) for a few months before bringing the plant back out to the filtered sunlight location and resuming the watering of the plant from below. The cycle should start over within 3-5 weeks.
RE-POTTING CYCLAMEN
When re-potting, use a potting medium that is enriched with houseplant fertilizer. For best results, bury the tuber and root parts of the plant shallowly, just slightly below the soil surface.
Are you a fan of cyclamen?
This post was first published in 2015 and has been updated.
Shelley (Fleming) Wigglesworth is an award-winning freelance journalist from Maine and a certified Maine Master Gardener who writes gardening articles on a regular basis for NewEngland.com. Her work can be found in the following publications: The Village Magazine, York County Coast Star, Yankee Magazine (online), National Fisherman Magazine, Commercial Fisheries News, Points East Magazine, Coastal Angler Magazine and The Maine Lobstermen's Association's "Landings."
