I didn't know much about cyclamen when I first took over GardenLine from Bill Zak around 24 years ago. Most varieties back then were considered indoor or "gift" plants. They simply weren’t grown for landscapes.
But thanks to advances in propagation techniques, today you can easily find those that will withstand the rigors of being grown in a landscape. Interestingly, it is the only true shade-loving annual for our winters. We can get minor success in filtered light with things like dianthus and pentas, but nothing does as well in total shade as the cyclamen. Plus, it still makes a great indoor plant for a holiday gift.
Cyclamen (Cyclamen persicum) are part of the primrose family. Late October through early November is the ideal time to plant and establish them. But it does pain me to see big box stores displaying them for sale in full sun. Cyclamen is an all-star winter-blooming plant for the shade.
These plants are so gorgeous that everyone who has ever grown one greatly enjoys them. Cyclamen have leaves as lush as spinach, but that is where the similarity ends. You can’t eat them, but you will admire them. The blooms come in shades of red, white, pink or maroon. The flowers stand above the attractive three-inch heart-shaped leaves on stalks that reach about a foot in height. Unless the weather gets extremely cold, cyclamen will bloom every day, all winter, until April. Use cyclamen as specimen plants or massed together in a single color, or in a combination of colors.
Cyclamen are not inexpensive plants. The larger the plant, the more they cost - they are available in four-inch containers on up. It should be noted, though, that four-inch cyclamen are very beautiful and worth the investment, but the key to reducing costs is to portion the plants over the summer. They don’t like heat, however, so the task is not always easy.
You can find some information about storing the cyclamen bulbs from May through September, but I don’t believe that idea works well along the Gulf Coast. Some people remove bulb structures from their gardens in late April or early May and store them in paper sacks in an air-conditioned room. Others try leaving the plants in containers and storing them in the house without watering them. Another method involves growing the cyclamen in containers that have been sunk in a flowerbed all winter. But I’ve never seen any of those approaches work here.
Many of us have grown cyclamen as a houseplant. They will live a number of years and bloom almost continuously if they are: (1) watered faithfully when the soil surface dries to half an inch, (2) fertilized every three or four weeks with soluble fertilizer, and (3) placed in a window with morning sun. In an air-conditioned house, cyclamen are much more tolerant of light than they are outside. In late fall through early spring, cyclamen do best with dappled sun for a few hours each day.
Cyclamen purchased from nurseries are pumped up with lots of nutrients, but you should still feed them – outdoors, they don’t need as much feeding as those grown indoors. Many slow-release blooming plant foods like Nelson’s Color Star are good.
So what are you waiting for? Get out there and buy some cool-weather cyclamen for the shady parts of your landscape or to brighten things up indoors.
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PHOTOS: Getty Images