How to grow and care for cyclamen so it blooms abundantly? Detailed care tips

For gardeners with plenty of growing experience, keeping a potted cyclamen thriving is not all that difficult. But for the average household grower, getting a cyclamen to grow well and bloom beautifully on schedule often comes with quite a few problems during care.

In fact, as long as you master the care techniques and manage the plant attentively, things often become quite simple. The ultimate goal of growing cyclamen is to let it bloom successfully, so we can admire its beauty. To get a cyclamen to produce more blooms successfully, we usually only need to focus on doing the following four things well.

1. Besides propagating cyclamen from tubers, you can also grow potted seedlings from seed. For most places, mid-November is generally the most suitable time for sowing. That way, the cyclamen seedlings that grow up will usually not be affected by outside temperature and light during June to July in summer.

If we sow at other times of the year, although seedlings are still easy to raise, since cyclamen is quite tenacious. But in that case, the plant often leaves its protected period and enters dormancy when it encounters hot summer weather, which affects its blooming time. If sown in November, by this time the following year it can basically enter the early flowering stage, and from January to May of the year after that it can enter the full flowering stage.

2. If sown in November, by April of the following year it can put out 3 leaves and grow a corm about 0.5 cm in diameter. At that point, we can transplant the seedling into a small pot with a 3-inch diameter for care.

Usually, fill the small pot with soil nearly up to the rim, then dig a small hole in the soil, and plant the cyclamen seedling into it. When planting, be careful to leave the corm exposed above the soil surface, then water thoroughly. During this period, keeping the temperature between 15°C and 20°C is most suitable, and shade it promptly at midday.

3. After potting up the cyclamen seedling, what we need to do afterward is the care and management work. Be careful not to water too much, and only give water after the potting soil has dried out; you can apply a dilute liquid fertilizer once a week, and during the peak growing season you can appropriately increase the fertilizer concentration a little. After entering June in summer, when the temperature reaches as high as 30°C, besides strengthening shading, you should also stop fertilizing promptly.

4. Cyclamen flowering has relatively high temperature requirements. During the flowering period, try to keep the temperature at 20°C, and also make sure the environment has good ventilation and good light transmission. But since the plant enters dormancy after the flowering period, we should promptly reduce watering frequency, keeping it to once a week, and just keep the potting soil slightly moist. At the same time, place the pot in a cool, ventilated spot and keep it sheltered from rain, so it can safely get through the dormant period.