The Sunset Western Garden Book calls it a " tuberous-rooted
perennial, gows best in fairly rich, porous soil with lots of humus
and to top dress annually with light application of potting
soil with a complete fertilizer", (whatever that means), I just add a
little composted steer manure to my potting soil. We keep them
outside here in zone 22 or 10 and they come back year after year.
Yours sounds soooo beautiful.
> But then I read that Cyclamen are Biennials - does this mean that i must discard
l
l
The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof!
See a "Marvelous Garden" at O.C. Fair NOW
Amy of Marvelous Gardens
Delicious Design in Landscape
marvelus@neptune.net
http://www.neptune.net/~lobmij/MarvelousG/
Hi everyone,
Any Cyclamen experts out there?
A couple of years ago I planted some cyclamen seed. I had poor germination
but a half dozen plants made it to six inches across...and then, one by sad one
they died. I had no idea what to do, but (too late) read that they liked to
be on the dry side. Maybe I'm just *too* generous with the watering can:(
The lone survivor however became a large healthy thriving plant with
beautifully marked leaves - the embryo flowers withered away whilst still small
but it was such a lovely foliage plant i didn't mind a bit :)
This year tho it brought forth about thirty or so lovely, long lasting, magenta
flowers - glorious in the morning sun streaming thru my northern window.
Yippee!!
But then I read that Cyclamen are Biennials - does this mean that i must discard
my baby when the flowers finish?:((( I thought that Cyclamen grew from corms?
I assumed that after flowering it would die down, leaving a corm which would
then resprout for another glorious cycle. Not so??
If there is a chance to keep it,I really would like to. (I'm so proud of my
achievement :> Any tips on how to nurture it encourage it to keep going?
It was put into good potting mix but has been given very little extra feeding,
should I be feeding it to encourage a corm to form (Gee Poetry!) or is it now
a lost cause?
Any and all advice gratefully received - well *most* advice - er, make that -
oh, never mind, you know what I mean!
TIA
Elizabeth @ Oz
Elizabeth Fowler wrote:
Dear Elizabeth
I can't imagine why anybody should call Cyclamen biennial. They are
certainly true perennials and some live for many years. As you correctly
say, they produce a corm, which gradually grows bigger year by year,
though they may not necessarily flower so profusely as they get older.
I presume the one you have grown is a so-called florist's cyclamen, one
of the large hybrid plants, not one of the species such as C
hederifolium (which used to be known as C.neapolitanum). The big chaps
hve C. persicum as their distant ancestor. C.persicum and its offspring
are relatively tender and will only survive a touch of frost, while C.
hederifolium is a good deal hardier and has survived down to -6 C in my
garden.
I am not sure how cold your winters are, but if you only get a degree or
two of frost you could actually plant your cyclamen outside in a
sheltered spot,such as under the eaves. I wouldn't risk it at my place
(I live up in the hills), but in the adjacent valley I have seen plants
survive from year to year, and flower profusely in the garden.
If you prefer to keep your cyclamen in a pot, I have found they do best
if summered in a shady site in the garden. When flowering finishes,
simply bury the pot in the ground up to its rim and mulch the plant with
some compost. When the new leaves begin to appear next autumn you can
dig the pot up and repot the corm with fresh mix. An alternative is to
keep the pot indoors in a cool spot and when the leaves begin to die
off, pretty well cease watering over summer, giving only just enough
water to prevent the soil drying out altogether. Personally I favour the
burying outside as much less stressful for the gardener and probably for
the plant also.
Good luck with it anyway
Moira Elisabeth
Tony & Moira Ryan
Wainuiomata, New Zealand (Lat. 41.15'S Long. 174.58'E)
Oh *thank* you Amy - I'm so pleased. I thought I remembered my
fathers plants continuing on, but this magazine article said to pitch
them out after flowering - think I'll write to them and ask for a retraction
Hmm- Now where can I find a composted steer :>)
Elizabeth @ Oz
P.S. Thought I sent this days ago - Oops! - Added thanks to Moira, its so
comforting to be able to ask about these things - and my cyclamen now has a
whole new crop of buds on the way too :)))))
I can't keep cyclamen alive, tho tried many times, severa places, and my soil
is good.I wonder what the trick is.
You wrote:
> I can't keep cyclamen alive, tho tried many times, severa places, and
my soil
> is good.I wonder what the trick is.
I have experienced the same problem. Any plant which requires a
dormancy usually dies in my home! I just don't know how to turn a pot
on its side and let it relax. I am always afraid it will never return,
so I kill it first! I think THAT is the trick with cyclamen. You must
allow it to dry somewhat, die, and start watering and feeding several
months later. Even if it is growing in conditions directly in garden
soil.
Victoria
thanks so much, Victoria. I have never tried that, nor even thought of it.
My cyclamen secret is not to let the plant go dormant at all. Just keep it
in a relatively cool sunny spot and keep watering and feeding it (food
maybe 1.mo.).
When I tried to let them go dormant, they always died. But they loved just
growing on and on.
Libby
libby@igc.apc.org Libby J. Goldstein phone & fax: 215-465-8878
Philadelphia USDA zone 7A Sunset zone 32
My garden must be n-dimensional if it's out here in cyberspace.
M & V wrote:
Victoria
I presume you are talking of hybrid Cyclamen, not the species. Many of
ther latter, especially CC hederaefolium, and couum will naturalize
wherever the climate is relatively mild - approximately cool temperate
to Mediterranean. I have both these species coming up in my garden
wherever they fancy, mostly among leafmould in shrubberies.
The hybrids are certainly abit more fussy (Though I HAVE had some of
these also seeding in the gravel on the floor of my glasshouse).
I too used to try turning the pots on their sides and the corms always
died, but if left upright and kept going with just occasional waterings
(Letting the top inch or so dry out in between) they do usually come
through all right.
I have however found a much simpler method of keeping them going after
flowering ends and this is to bury the entire pot and corm in a shady
border. In the soil like this they apparently get just the right amount
of water to keep them going and toweards Autumn they will start into
new growth - producing fresh leaves. At this stage you can dig them up
and repot with fresh mix.
With either of these methods, they do not usually flower as profusely as
new corms, but I have kept some going pretty well for four or five years
before they petered out.
If you live in an area where there is little or no winter frost, such as
some of the seaside areas near where I live, you can go a stage further
and once you have enjoyed them for a season indoors you can turn them
into garden plants by setting them out in a shady border. If there are
occasional light frosts they will be best in a bed under the house
eaves. Do not leave the corm exposed, as one does in a pot, but set it
with the crown, where the leaves emerge, just at the surface. Not every
corm will survive this treatment, but some will continue to flower for
many years.
Hope this helps
Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan
Wainuiomata, New Zealand (Lat. 41.15'S Long. 174.58'E)
I have a few Cyclamen plants, in various colors. I have a pink, a white
and an off peach colored one. The pink one started acting strangely a while
back, after flowering profusely it lost most of it's leaves, it was
literally down to 2 leaves and I was getting ready to toss it when I noticed
a few baby leaves coming up. I decided to leave it. I fertilized it with
an all purpose fertilizer and it seemed to have come back to life. It
started producing lovely leaves, nice and healthy looking. I kept it with
the rest of the Cyclamen plants on my South facing window but moved it
slightly away until I was 100% certain that it recovered. We moved over
this past weekend and my plants are now on the West side of the house. The
same Cyclamen that was doing great started showing some signs of
*unhappiness*... the leaves started curing outwards (towards the direction
of the soil), I mean really curling. There is no change in color, and they
seem to be turgid, the other plants around this one are great. I sprayed it
with the milk and water mixture that Moira seemed to be having success with,
but I see no change :(.
Is this something that I should be concerned about? Is the plant sick and
needs any treatment?
Raven
SpyderGrl wrote:
Raven
Two separate things may be involved here. Indoor Cyclamen are related to
a wild species called Cyclamen persicum which has a growing period each
season in which it first produces leaves and then flowers. When all the
current flower crop is spent these drop their leaves also and go into a
dormant or resting period and during this dormant time they will not
begin to regrow until some internal clock related to seasonal changes
tells them it is the right time. No amount of watering or feeding at
this time will wake them until they are ready, but instead may cause
the "bulb" (actually a corm) to rot. I have two plants of this species
in my glasshouse and during the dormant period I give the soil only just
enough water to prevent it going dust-dry.
This relation of growth to season has become much less marked in the
cultivated forms, but most will still take a brief rest after a long
bout of flowering and may lose all or most of their leaves at this time.
I have several in the same glasshouse as the species plants and some do
lose all leaves and some seem to keep most but just stop growing new
ones for a time. Whichever they choose I make a point of watering very
little and feeding not at all until I see new growth emerging, when I
usually repot them to make sure they have plenty of safe food for the
next bout of activity.
I think going momentarily dormant before starting on a new growing
season was probably what your pink plant was doing when it lost its
leaves, and it would probably have benefited from a few week's rest with
minimum watering before you started feeding it again. As it is now
obviously growing again it would be no good now to try and rest it now.
Other possibilities are:-
1)The change of site is putting some strain on the leaves of this
particular plant because they are newly-developed and not yet mature,
even if the other plants are not showing similar symptoms. (pretty
unlikely I
think).
2) There is a pest causing the leaves to curl downwards. If anything is
present it will usually be on the underside. Most likely are thrips or
spider mite, both of which really need a magnifying glass to see them
properly. However thrips may be recognised with the naked eye by the
presence of white patches on the leaf surface (eventually involving the
whole leaf) and the black spots of frass (poos) which will be dotted
around. Young thrips are long narrow creatures, torpedo-shaped and
orange in colour. As they get older they turn black and eventually
develop into a similarly-shaped but winged black adult (just visible to
the naked eye if you know what you are looking for).
Leaves with spider mite are lightly speckled with white on the upper
surface and
underneath the creatures spin a slight web over the leaf surface.
Downward curling of leaves is quite characteristic of attacks of this
pest.
With the help of a lens, one can usually see trotting around on this
web
stout-bodied, spider-like creatures with two darker spots one on each of
their abdomen (which gives them the familar name of two-spotted mite).
Usually one will also see clusters of small white eggs.
A far as I know milk is not a pesticide and if you have either of these
creatures to control you will instead need a soap aolution. This can be
sprayed on, but more easily with a single plant you can simply dunk the
leaves in soapy water and give them a good wash. (cover the pot soil
with a piece of clingwrap first so it won't tip out)
3) If there is no sign of any pest, I guess one must look for a disease
and I wonder if the rolling down of the leaves is getting worse. If so I
would examine the base of each one, where it comes out of the corm and
see if it looks quite normal or if it is thinned down and turning brown
(as I found on my sick plant). If untreated the stem quickly becomes
quite limp and soon the the whole leaf hangs down and turns brown. On
the dead tissues one might find a brownish fur of sporing fungus.
If this is happening you could have the sort of rot I had, and should
remove every leaf which has a basal rot and then pour in some milk to
wet the corm and all the remaining apparently healthy leaf bases.
Spraying the leaf blades is pointless, as the fungus is only active in
the bottom of the stems where you can see the rot..
4) Such symptoms could conceivably be the result of a virus infection,
but I am not aware of any such problem on Cyclamen.
5)If neither pest nor disease is to be found I think the most likely
explanation is that you were a bit too generous with your fertilizer and
you have actually succeeded in burning the roots so they are not at
present fully functional. This would be easy to do with a dormant or
partially dormant plant which would probably have anyway very few active
roots for the time being.
I would myself be inclined to flood the pot several times with clean
water to wash out any surplus and avoid any further fertilizing, apart
from perhaps the odd foliar feed of something mild like half-strength
Maxicrop, until at least any
new leaves look normal again (the presently curled ones may stay that
way). From then on I would proceed with considerable caution,
preferably using a slow-release product which cannot produce a
too-strong soil solution even if one is a bit on the generous side.
I have gone to some pains to describe a full investigation of this
particular problem (such as I would carry out myself) in the hopes that
it may be a generally useful indicator to anybody trying to find out
what is wrong with a sick plant. If at all possible discovering what is
really wrong is much more useful than applying odd remedies on the
chance they may do some good.
Moira
Tony & Moira Ryan
Wainuiomata, New Zealand, SW Pacific. 12 hours ahead of Greenwich Time
Hi,
I was given a cyclamen and all the leaves died right away. There are
about 15-20 flowers. Does anyone have any idea why the leaves died
and any suggestions for caring for this type of plant
Thank you
lin
Hi Lin and all,
Well, cyclamen are not the easiest plants to keep happy indoors, but it can be done. Generally they like very cool temperatures, water when the top of the soil becomes lightly dry, and sunshine in winter and bright shade the rest of the year when the sun is stronger. If they get too much, or too little, water they will drop their leaves....do you think your plant had either of those conditions?
The fancy large-leaf types also often go dormant in the hottest part of the year and can be basically ignored until they resume growth in autumn. I'm sure other people will have some tips/suggestions/ideas too. Just don't feel too bad since they're not super-easy as indoor plants.
Take care and good luck. Keep us posted!
Grant
llnmagee
Hi,
I was given a cyclamen and all the leaves died right away. There are
about 15-20 flowers. Does anyone have any idea why the leaves died
and any suggestions for caring for this type of plant
Thank you
lin
---------------------------------
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Hi Grant,
Thank you. It was given as a gift and could have been watered too much. The blossoms are awesome and I fill follow your advise regarding the watering. Also I'm going to find a cooler spot.
Thank you for you help
Lin
Grant Meyer
Well, cyclamen are not the easiest plants to keep happy indoors, but it can be done. Generally they like very cool temperatures, water when the top of the soil becomes lightly dry, and sunshine in winter and bright shade the rest of the year when the sun is stronger. If they get too much, or too little, water they will drop their leaves....do you think your plant had either of those conditions?
The fancy large-leaf types also often go dormant in the hottest part of the year and can be basically ignored until they resume growth in autumn. I'm sure other people will have some tips/suggestions/ideas too. Just don't feel too bad since they're not super-easy as indoor plants.
Take care and good luck. Keep us posted!
Grant
llnmagee
Hi,
I was given a cyclamen and all the leaves died right away. There are
about 15-20 flowers. Does anyone have any idea why the leaves died
and any suggestions for caring for this type of plant
Thank you
lin
---------------------------------
Sucker-punch spam with award-winning protection.
Try the free Yahoo! Mail Beta.
does anyone in the group have this plant and could anyone tell me if
it is a hard or easy plant to keep for a long time i have only had one
and that was a long time ago and if i am thinking right it rotted on me.
also does anyone know the colors of the blooms and where i can get some?
any help???
thanks dave
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Hi Dave and all,
Cyclamen blooms sure are lovely, aren't they? I love them. I'm not
growing this plant, but it's got a reputation for being somewhat
difficult to keep happy long-term in the average home. They like plenty
of sunshine and quite cool temperatures, plus regular water but they
hate having water pool on top of their corm/bulb which is near the soil
surface, otherwise they're likely to rot (so bottom-watering is a good
idea). They also usually want a dormant period where they drop their
foliage and need very, very little water, so folks often either
overwater them at that stage, or think they're dead and discard them.
That being said, I do see them now and then at antique malls, and small
shops etc where they're not getting particularly attentive care, and
they often look and bloom great. A woman at my office has one on her
desk and it gets only overhead fluorescent lighting with just a bit of
very indirect light from a window ten feet away, and her plant looks
very nice and has a flush of blooms every three weeks or so. It's quite
impressive, especially given the plant's reputation.
Hopefully some of our members who have experience with this plant will
chime in too. They are popular as holiday gifts, and at Valentine's day
too, with flower colors ranging from white through deep red and
almost-purple, and everything in-between. Most large nurseries that
carry houseplants should have them off and on in the winter months, and
places that specialize in gift plants (www.logees.com
holidays.
Here's a gift basket of three plants from Jackson and Perkins (yes, the
rose people):
http://tinyurl.com/2rl43s
Here's one from 1800Flowers.com
http://tinyurl.com/37vkg8
Though I imagine if you have any nearby nurseries or big-box hardware
stores you can find them locally.
Let us know if you get one and how it does for you.
Best wishes,
Grant
________________________________
From: houseplants@yahoogroups.com
ilto:houseplants@yahoogroups.com
On Behalf Of ill tell you later
Sent: Friday, November 30, 2007 1:42 PM
To: houseplants@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Houseplants] cyclamen
does anyone in the group have this plant and could anyone tell me if
it is a hard or easy plant to keep for a long time i have only had one
and that was a long time ago and if i am thinking right it rotted on me.
also does anyone know the colors of the blooms and where i can get some?
any help???
thanks dave
