By MIKE RALEY WPTF Weekend Gardener
Our friend Phil Campbell and her brother, who owns a separate nursery near Mt Airy, grow extraordinary plants of all kinds. Every year Phil brings down poinsettias and other Christmas wonders from brother Jim’s place. Beauties like the Holiday Cactus and Cyclamen. It’s the latter I wish to touch on.
I must say, with a great deal of pride, that I have rarely killed a plant in my landscape over the last 40 plus years on the WPTF Weekend Gardener. I am certainly not bragging, it’s just that I have worked with gardening experts who are among the best in the state. Plus, I usually buy plants that are tough and relatively easy to grow. I’ve learned a fair amount about plant care. However, there is at least one plant that has had Melissa and me stumped until we did our homework! Thus, this article about the aforementioned, Cyclamen. It can be a pretty challenging plant if you just ignore it. That’s exactly what I like to do to all of my plants. Now, Rufus’s wife, Linda, has kept one thriving for over a decade. She is a magic lady indeed! At the very least, she knows her stuff.
We think we have a brightly lit , “coolish” den. Apparently we do not. We made every effort to follow directions when growing the Cyclamen. It was all for naught until recently. We bring a gorgeous plant home from Phil’s nursery and a few days to weeks later our Cylamen is ailing, beyond repair. However, we are persistent to a fault.
As I mentioned, you should find a “cool” spot in the house for its winter show. At night an unheated garage is a perfect location. This doesn’t mean to put your Cyclamen in a garage that is likely to see temperatures below 50 degrees. When you bring it back in, it will be the happiest in the upper 60’s. Hopefully that is a room where you spend a lot of time. Now I said this plan likes cool. Make sure to watch where you place it in the room you choose. Keep it away from heat sources and vents.
Another continuous aspect of growing a Cyclamen or most other plants indoors is watering. Check the soil surface and look for the droopy flowers. Some of my horticulture friends recommend watering into a plant tray or saucer from the bottom of the pot. The water should drain completely out. Otherwise, you will kill your plant with root rot. Give it 20 minutes or so. There should be holes in the container and the decorative paper surrounding the pot. On occasion I have forgotten that too. Never let the Cyclamen or most other plants sit in water. Pour out the excess after it soaks up what it needs. Mist your plant occasionally. It likes a little extra humidity in the winter. So do we.
You need to feed your Cyclamen monthly with a balanced fertilizer in the fall and winter according to my horticulture friends. Don’t overdo it. Feed when you are watering to give it a some dilution.
Deadhead the spent flowers and the yellow leaves from the base. You might want to use some small scissors.
Finally, the Cyclamen needs to go into dormancy in the spring. That’s usually when the last bloom will occur and the leaves start to die back. At that point, stop watering until the plant and soil looks dry. Store that all important tuber in a dark, dry, cool place. Replant in good, fresh soil in the fall for another Christmas season. We’re following the outlined directions and will report back.