How To Take Care Of Cyclamen Plant In 2024 | Garden Take Care Guide
Cyclamen is widely famous for its vibrant flower and interesting leaf pattern. Native to Mediterranean areas, it has now been recognized as the most liked house plant. They are sold potted in adorable terracotta pots and also for outdoor bedding plants in autumn.
Knowing how to take care of cyclamen properly is essential if you wish to keep it healthy lasting year after year. Here then, let’s dwell into the care tips of cyclamen plants both during winter and after it is done blooming.
Because it dies back naturally in spring as it begins its per-dormancy. During summer it completely goes dormant. Many plant owners at this point make the mistake of discarding their cyclamen. Don’t make this mistake. Go on reading to know how you are supposed to care for your cyclamen in their dormancy so that you can encourage them to re-bloom the following winter.
How To Take Care Of Cyclamen Plant In 2024
Since they are winter flowering plants, they make a popular gift during winter and Christmas. Including Valentine’s Day. If you get one as a gift you are definitely gonna need the care tips. You don’t want to kill the gift you received, do you?
Basic growing tips
1. Perfect spot to place cyclamen
Many love to grow it outside in the gardening bed or the pot no matter where the ideal place to place cyclamen is an area with partial shade or filtered indirect sunlight. Saying this, it’s best to place them in an east or west-facing window if you are planning to grow them indoors.
2. Giving them the ideal temperature
Cyclamens usually sold in the market are topical. For this reason, they are not very tolerant of temperature. They like being placed in cool places during winter to activate their flowering period. Keep them in a cool room that has around 10- 15 degrees of temperature.
If at any condition given too much sun, cyclamen are forced to rush to early dormancy. This eventually makes them dry out.
3. Watering your cyclamen
Watering well is another essential part of taking care of cyclamen. Being said that, they are very fussy about both, being under-watered and over-watered conditions. That is the reason why you should learn to water them just right.
Make sure that the pot your cyclamen is planted in has water draining hole. Before that, make sure the medium or soil used to plant them has an excellent draining potting mix. Overwatering is the most common way for people to kill this plant.
How often do water? This is the most asked question by plant parents. So let me get you through this too.
Water your cyclamen only when the soil feels dry when touched. Being said so, don’t let the plant stay dry for too long. Water them before it starts showing signs of being underwater, such as droopy leaves and flowers.
After that, knowing how to water? Another most asked question. let’s get through this too.
Cyclamen plants prefer being bottom watered. This means instead of pouring water from the top just place the pot in a saucer or shallow bowl of water for an hour or so. Let it stay until the compost on the pot feels moist. Make sure that the excess amount of water inside the pot drains away.
Watering them with a watering can is not preferred because it might splash water in their steam and leaves which can cause rot
4. Planting them in a perfect medium.
General potting mix soil works just fine for cyclamen. However, it must not hold too much moisture inside the soil, which means the soil you are using needs to have a quick draining capacity. So it’s always better to make your kind of fastest-draining mix of soil.
The mixture of some portion of gardening soil with perlite, pumice, and sand or cocopeat can build the well-draining capacity of the soil.
Besides this, cyclamen prefers to be grown inorganically rich soil with slightly acidic soil pH. For this, you can mix some sphagnum peat in the soil to increase the acidity.
5. Feeding your beauty
Fertilizing plants is another essential part of growing them happy and healthy. For its perfect health, you need to feed your plant every one to two months during its active growing time. Fertilizing part requires water-soluble low nitrogen fertilizer mixed at half dose.
However, do not overdo it. Fertilizing in excess amounts might promote leaf growth but eventually, the flowers will perish. You would not want your plant to lose its blooming capacity in your care. So you’d better just do it right at the right time.
Note: stop feeding them once the flowers begin to fade.
What to do after cyclamen is done blooming
They need special care after blooming that is during summer. They make appraisal growth the entire winter. During winter they should be placed in a spot with enough indirect sunlight. As the summer starts its shiny potted cyclamen eventually starts drying out. This is the point where you need to stay calm and let it dry out entirely instead of cutting the plant out mistaking it for dead. Instead, you need to allow them to go dry and move them to a cooler place. Remember that, it is the time your plant is entering the dormant stage. It’s just sleeping not dead yet. It will revive and bloom in no time.
Taking care of cyclamen during dormancy requires
- allowing the leaves to dry out entirely.
- Stop watering the plant once you see the sign of falling leaves and drying flower
- Bring the plant to a cooler and somewhat darker spot.
- Let it sit still for two or more months.
Once the dormant period of cyclamen ends, you can end every shortage you’ve made for them during summer. It means you can start watering it. You’d better give it a long water dip. As the summer gives way to fall, you can also move them to a spot with bright sunlight. You can now start the normal pace of the watering process. soon after, you will see tiny green foliage being developed from the soil.
I hope, You are now ready to add cyclamen charm to your garden or your indoors. The best part is that you are definitely not going to be that plant mom who will detach them when they begin to dry out. You will make them rest well and wait for them to revive after long rest. You will make them re-bloom and happy again
Happy gardening!!
