A cyclamen is an amazingly beautiful plant. The leaves have an interesting pattern on them, and the flowers sprout like shooting stars from their stems, leaving many people in awe. However, when bringing a cyclamen plant home, it comes down to how well you can take care of it. A cyclamen is great for beginning gardeners, as long as you know what you’re doing! It’s also the go-to houseplant for those of us with a budding green thumb. Follow these tips on growing cyclamens to keep your plant healthy and strong!
Temperature
Follow the temperature guidelines, no matter what. A cyclamen will be much happier in a home that is over 68F in the day or 50F at night. If it’s too cold, it’ll struggle. However, too much heat will burn the poor thing, and it’ll die in no time. It prefers a cooler area, so keeping it in a shady place, or in indirect sunlight indoors, is the perfect choice. Since it can be so finicky, it’s usually considered to be better as a houseplant than grown outdoors where you can’t control the temperature as well.
Water
One of the most essential parts of taking care of a plant is the correct watering. Even with the best soil in the world, a plant can’t thrive without proper watering. Cyclamen are somewhat picky about how they’re watered, but that doesn’t mean it’s difficult. As long as you pot it in soil that has great drainage, or add some extra drainage holes and rocks at the bottom of the pot, your plant will avoid most of the risk of overwatering. As for underwatering, try to avoid pouring water into the dirt if you can see that it’s still wet, but don’t leave it alone for long. You’ll be just begging for trouble if you wait long enough to see the plant start to droop and fall apart from lack of water. It’s better to add in some extra rocks at the bottom to provide better drainage than to risk underwatering.
Nutrients
Thankfully, the cyclamen plant isn’t a deep feeder, so it doesn’t need a lot of nutrients. A small amount of fertilizer mixed into any well-draining soil will provide more than enough for your plant. Stick to a very small amount of fertilizer in the spring, and you’ll be good to go! If you do decide to stick to a non-fertilized soil compound, rather than buying a storebought potting soil, you can use an all-purpose flower fertilizer, since it should be an even mixture of nutrients.
A cyclamen isn’t the pickiest plant out there, but it can be tricky for some beginning gardeners. As long as you keep it in indirect sunlight and cool, water it properly, and don’t overfeed it, you’ll have an amazing plant that flowers beautifully. Brush up on how to help the cyclamen go dormant in the winter, and come back in the spring, and you’ll have an amazing plant that will last you for years!
