Cyclamen, year three

On a list of gardening mistakes that expands as I advance in experience and wisdom I have to place my lack of knowledge about the behavior of the cyclamen plants.

After I threw away perfectly good tubers more times tha
I care to recount I found out that cyclamens only grow leaves in the fall, bloom in winter and then go dormant. The only reason this beautiful flower made it is because my daughter gave it to me as a gift and I went to great lengths to keep it "alive" which basically means I forced it out of its hibe
ation during the spring and summer.

If you look for plants that provide fall and winter interest you often find the cyclamens mentioned, many varieties are very resilient to cold (some withstand negative temperatures). In my earlier and more enthusiastic gardening endeavors I planted some outside and abandoned hope come spring. I'm sure I left behind many cyclamen clumps that are thriving as we speak, I guess I was supposed to wait until the following September to see their first set of leaves.

I am a little skeptic about the cold hardiness of the average cyclamen plant because they originated on the Mediterranean shores. Mine is a Cyclamen Persicum, definitely frost tender unless you live in zone 7 or above.

Anyhow, now I learned my lesson and I'm going to share it. They like bright indirect light, a lot of moisture and temperatures around 50 degrees, which are really hard to accommodate inside the house. In April their leaves start yellowing and dying down and it spends the summer sleeping. Keep it away from bright light and don't give it too much water during the dormant phase because this can cause tuber rot. The leaves start growing again in September when it benefits from a copious feeding with a good organic fertilizer, especially if grown in a pot. It blooms in January and February and looks like this.