Cyclamen 2014

[David Nicholson]

Thanks for that Roma, you give me hope.

[johnstephen29]

Hi David I have just read your question, I am the same as you if I have some tomato feed left in my can after watering my toms and cucumbers I water my cyclamen plants that are growing with it. Like you I have heard that they don't need it, I grow my graceum plants in a sunny spot in the greenhouse as they grow in open sunny places in Greece. Maybe you could try a different place to grow them see if it makes a difference. It works for me.

[Yann]

David i use a soluble fertilizer on my Cyclamen as well as on my african bulbs.

Not for advertising, but i use this one http://www.elixirgardensupplies.co.uk/01058-1kg-soluble-grade-potassium-chloride-fertilizer.html which give good results.

On my 3's old bulbils i fertilize with 2/1/1 NPK, azote helps small leafs to absorb more light. the first 2 years i don't fertilize at all, the substrat contains enough nutriments.

With this diet i get flowers in 4-5 years.

However i'm not a Cyclamen expert, other talented growers in this forum should have better recipes.

[SJW]

I've just started my Cyclamen re-potting, and a question please. I have a bunch of pots of Cyclamen graecum all grown from seed sown August/September 2008 and these have so far produced tubers of around squash ball size. None have produced flowers and the tubers/roots look healthy enough. My mix is my usual bulb mix (JI No.2, sand, grit) augmented with composted bark. I have never fed any of my Cyclamen apart from the odd watering with tomato fertiliser having read somewhere that they didn't need it. Am I doing something wrong?

David - are your graecum tubers still crowded in their original pots or have they been potted on individually? If it's the former then I'd pot them on into 3"/3.5"/4" pots, depending on tuber size. Your potting mix should be fine (I sometimes also add a bit of bonemeal) but graecum do like a hot, sunny dormancy period. The trick is to give them a good baking without shrivelling the tubers and killing the roots! As Roma says, they do benefit from a bit of water over the summer. As you know, traditionally the tubers would be in plunged clay pots with the sand kept just damp but with no water in the pot itself. I don't plunge so if we've had a really hot spell I just give them a drink by standing the pots in a shallow tray of water but not for too long - just dampish soil needed, not moist. Some pots I also have standing on sand in gravel trays and I wet the sand when I notice it's dried out. As you're repotting now, there should be enough moisture in the fresh compost to keep the tubers plumped up and roots healthy before they are given their first drenching in August/September. I also use tomato fertiliser but usually at around half-strength although this probably isn't critical.

Actually, as your tubers are only (!) 5 years old I wouldn't be too disappointed just yet. They should start to flower for you soon. Those who can get them flowering within 3 or 4 years must really be giving them optimal growing conditions, but for us mere mortals...! It's also down to the seed parents as well, I think. Some clones are just more precocious than others.

[David Nicholson]

Thank you John, Yann and Steve, hope springs eternal!

Steve, I have my graecum in clay long toms but not plunged.

In 2009 Tony Willis was kind enough to send me seed from Cyclamen cyprium 'ES' and this was sown min mid-October 2009. It has proved to be extraordinarily prolific and I now have a number of spare corms available (6 I think) some of which are of flowering size. Anyone who would like one PM me please and in view of our exorbitant international postage rates UK only please. Example pic below from earlier this year:-

[SJW]

Steve, I have my graecum in clay long toms but not plunged.

David - I keep mine in plastic pots until they've flowered and then I transfer the better ones to clay (optimistically hoping they'll turn out good enough to show!). For younger plants I find it easier to control the watering regime in plastic - smaller clay pots can dry out so quickly if not plunged, particularly in a hot greenhouse. Not so much of a problem with larger, clay long toms of course.

[SJW]

One of my better Cyclamen purpurascens - very early this year, in the past I've shown it still in flower at the Cyclamen Society show in September...

[Diane Clement]

One of my better Cyclamen purpurascens - very early this year, in the past I've shown it still in flower at the Cyclamen Society show in September... 

Steve, is that 'Green Ice'? Super plant, whatever the name

[SJW]

Steve, is that 'Green Ice'? Super plant, whatever the name

Hi Diane, thanks. No it's not one of Jan B's. It's one of my own plants selected from the offspring of Cyclamen Society seed originally sown about 15 years ago. It doesn't breed true (there's a suprise!) but I've got a few similar daughter plants coming on and by a process of selfing and sibbing in a few years I'll probably still end up with pots of non-identical seedlings

[johnstephen29]

Hi Steve your purpuracens is looking really great, I have a young plant
Grown from cyclamen society seed just starting to flower. All my other plants are still
Ripening the seeds and no sign of flowers.
P.s. Are you going to Birmingham in September?

[SJW]

Hi John - I've just finished harvesting the last of my purpurascens seeds and have a number of plants coming into flower but others not yet started into new growth. It's obviously partly down to natural variation but I still puzzle over the relative importance of temperature and moisture in stimulating the growth of new leaves and flowers in purpurascens. They certainly like plenty of water throughout the summer.

Yes, I should be at the Birmingham show (I may even have some young purpurascens for the sales bench!)

[johnstephen29]

Hi Steve they do like a lot more water throughout the year than other species I wonder if it's due to the plants being more or less evergreen? My colchicum plants like simular treatment.

[johnw]

Even here in coastal Nova Scotia C. purpurascens stays thoroughly evergreen, with or without snowcover.  It only shuts down from late December through mid-March and never appears distressed. corms sitting atop the soil take winter in their stride.  Summer drought is not to its liking and it prefers to self-sow under dwarf shrubs rather than out in our "sun".  In a good moist year it will flower from late May until early December barring a very hard freeze.

Unquestionably it is the hardiest of all the cyclamen species, at least given our conditions.

18c & overcast.

johnw

[johnstephen29]

I have had a really good seed harvest this year, here are some seeds drying.

[fermi de Sousa]

I have had a really good seed harvest this year, here are some seeds drying.

Hi John,
You must be secure in the knowledge that wasps or ants can't get at them
cheers
fermi