How to Care for Cyclamen?

If you have little space to maintain plants and at the same time you are looking for a beautiful plant, definitely choose Cyclamen. While most plants finish flowering in late summer, the beautiful Cyclamen is just beginning to flower until mid-spring. The flowers are white, pink and similar colors. Sometimes its attractive leaves are decorated with silver stripes. Continue reading this article in TooPlant in order to learn more about how to grow and care for Cyclamen.

Introduction of Cyclamen (Cyclamen Persicum)

Before addressing how to care for Cyclamen, please allow us to give you a brief introduction about this houseplant.

Before explaining the methods of caring for Cyclamen houseplants, we will introduce this plant.

This plant reaches its peak of popularity in winter and Christmas, and with its colorful blooms, it upsets the equation of flowerless plants! Cyclamen is a small plant and considering its flowers, it eventually reaches a height of 20 cm. It continues to flower for a few weeks and needs a little care.

Usually gardeners plant Cyclamen in pots and keep them indoors. Cyclamen house plant enters their dormant period with the onset of summer, but if properly maintained, they will start flowering again in early autumn.

Exactly when the plant enters the dormancy period depends on the environmental conditions and how you maintain it. Some types of Cyclamen may not even fully experience this course or may go through it too quickly. Cyclamen is a perennial plant.

In this article, we want to provide you with information about how to care for Cyclamen, so stay tuned with Tooplant.

Care for Cyclamen

In this part, we will focus on the most important aspects which you need to take into consideration while treating this houseplant. The best methods of how to care for Cyclamen include as follows:

Cyclamen Light Requirements: What light is best for Cyclamen?

Light is among the first important issues to care for Cyclamen. Winter is the time of active growth of this plant. Therefore, during this month, expose Cyclamen to adequate and indirect sunlight.

As we have said, summer is the time of Cyclamen dormancy, and what it cannot tolerate is a strong midday sun that reaches it directly. So the best opportunity is to keep it in a cool, shady place to be ready for the next growth. Choose a well-ventilated room. In this season, you can put it outside the house and in the shade.

So, as shown above, light plays a significant role to care for Cyclamen.

Cyclamen Watering: How often should you water a Cyclamen?

In the rest, concerning the tips of caring for a Cyclamen, it is better to know that when the leaves appear, it means that the plant is in its active growth period. Water the plant whenever the soil surface is about 2.5 cm dry. Be careful not to spill water on the leaves or body of the plant, as this will cause rot. As always, you should not flood the plant. Therefore, watering is another important aspect in order to care for Cyclamen.

Remove wilted flowers and weak leaves from the plant so that it can grow new flowers with more energy. In fact, by removing these leaves, you are encouraging the plant to replace them! And in summer, enjoy its extremely beautiful green leaves!

The fading of the flowers indicates the beginning of dormancy. At this time, you should allow the plant to dry for about 2 to 3 months. The plant does not grow these days and therefore does not need water or fertilizer; Any excess water accumulates in the soil and causes the plant tuber to rot.

If you leave the pot outside during the dormancy period, choose a safe place so that water does not enter the pot due to rain. Of course, this does not mean that the plant should not be irrigated, but the amount of irrigation should be greatly reduced. A little water is not harmful to the plant, but keeping the soil moist is harmful. So water the plant so that the soil never gets wet. Maybe once a month is enough.

In this way, to care for Cyclamen, watering is considered to be of great significance.

Cyclamen Soil: What is the best soil for a Cyclamen?

Intending to care for Cyclamen, the other crucial matter is soil. For Cyclamen, use mixed potting soil, preferably with a plant base (such as leaf soil). The highest point of the plant tuber should be at least 3 cm below the soil surface.

Thus, it can be said that, soil is another basic and important issue so as to care for Cyclamen.

Cyclamen Temperature Tolerance

Now, we come to temperature and humidity which are assumed to be principal to care for Cyclamen in addition to light, watering and soil that are mentioned above. Cyclamen does not like high temperatures, heating devices or dry air. The best condition for this houseplant is to live in a climate similar to its original habitat.

In fact, the ideal temperature for it is above 5 degrees at night and below 15 degrees during the day.

Cyclamen Humidity: Does Cyclamen like humidity?

Moisture is another thing which we need to inevitably pay attention to when talking about how to care for Cyclamen. High humidity, especially in winter, is vital for our beautiful plant. Take a suitable tray, pour water and pebbles into it and place the Cyclamen pot on it. Secure the pot on the tray with pebbles. Be careful that the pot does not come into direct contact with water. Because it will lead to root rot. In fact, this layer of pebbles should act as a floor for the pot and place it on the water.

Therefore, please do not forget to take humidity into consideration in order to care for Cyclamen in the best way.

If you take the plant outside in the summer, move it inside before the weather cools down. We need to explain a little trick here! Whenever the temperature was moderate, so that you could leave the window open and not feel cold/hot, the temperature is also suitable for the plant outdoors. With this method, you can easily guess the beginning of the cold weather for the plant.

Cyclamen Fertilizer: What is the best fertilizer for a Cyclamen?

When you want to care for Cyclamen, one of the important questions that may come to your mind is “what is the best fertilizer?” In what follows, we will address how to fertilize this plant:

Once most of the Cyclamen leaves have grown, give the plant a concentrated liquid fertilizer every few weeks. Suitable fertilizer for Cyclamen is low nitrogen fertilizer. The plant does not need fertilizer when it is dormant.

As a result, we could say that fertilizer is regarded as one of the fundamental issues when someone wants to care for Cyclamen.

Cyclamen Toxicity: Is Cyclamen poisonous to humans and pets?

In order to care for Cyclamen, toxicity is considered to be a major issue because it directly relates to your health especially children and pets. Although Cyclamen is very beautiful and attractive, different parts of the Cyclamen plant (especially the trunk and roots) contain a substance called saponin, which if eaten can be dangerous to humans or animals and can cause symptoms such as runny nose, diarrhea or vomiting. These symptoms are more common and more dangerous in animals and less severe in humans. It is better to keep this plant out of the reach of your pets or children.

Cyclamen Repotting: How to repot Cyclamen?

Cyclamen indoor plant should be transferred to a new pot every two years. You can do this in the summer and during plant dormancy. Transfer it to a slightly larger pot and provide fresh soil:

1. Fill the new pot halfway with fresh soil.
2. Remove the plant tuber from the main pot and clean the old soil with a soft object (such as a brush) but do not wash the plant.
3. Place the tuber in the new pot so that the top is about 3 cm below the edge of the pot. Fill the rest of the pot with soil.
4. Keep the pot in a shady, dry place until the end of summer. Start watering the plant slowly in September. You will see beautiful buds over time.

Caring for Cyclamen: Common Problems With Cyclamen

After a description of taking care of a Cyclamen, we will explain the problems and their solutions:

Why Are Cyclamen Leaves Turning Yellow?

As “leaves turning yellow” is one of the common problems that you may face when you want to care for Cyclamen, we will try to describe the reasons and the ways to solve it in details. Cyclamen is a plant that rests in the summer.

When the weather warms up, the plant stops flowering, its leaves turn yellow, and it may even look like a dead plant.

This is a sign of the plant’s natural life and tells you that you need to drastically reduce watering and fertilizing so that the plant can rest.

Why Are Cyclamen Leaves Dropping?

One of the most important reasons for the fall of Cyclamen leaves is overwatering. This plant prefers moist soil but does not like too wet soil. A plant that receives a lot of water will not have healthy roots and will suffer from root rot, as a result of which its leaves will start to fall off. This is a sign of a fungal problem in the roots of the plant that can even cause the death of the plant.

Since “leaves turning brown” is another common problem that you may face when you want to care for Cyclamen, we tried to describe the reasons and the ways to solve it in details.

How To Encourage Cyclamen For Flower? (The good tips for Caring for Cyclamen)

Like all other plants from the eastern Mediterranean, Cyclamen can flower in autumn, winter, and spring when the weather is cool.

In hot seasons, this plant goes to sleep and rest, and at this time, the leaves of the plant turn yellow and die, and there will be no signs of growth in it. But do not worry, the plant is currently storing energy for the next flowering season.

If you want your Cyclamen to flower again in the next season and start growing, you should fertilize it monthly as the air cools and place the plant near skylights with indirect light. The room where the Cyclamen is located should be cool and something around 18 degrees Celsius. During this time, take care of the plant and wait for the plant to continue growing and flowering again.

Flowering in plants is an energy-intensive and difficult process, and this plant also needs to store and receive enough energy for flowering. Lack of humidity and improper temperature can prevent Cyclamen from flowering. This plant blooms in its original nature when the weather is winter and Mediterranean and the environment is cool. Keeping Cyclamen at home or in a very hot or dry environment prevents it from flowering.

Infographic Of How To Care For Cyclamen

In this article, we tried to explain to you in an infographic the essential tips in the care of Cyclamen, so that you can briefly and usefully learn the methods of caring for this plant.

In The End

In this article, we tried to provide you with the necessary information about the methods of caring for a Cyclamen.

However, if you have any questions regarding this indoor plant or you need to get advice from our houseplant experts, please share your questions with us through the comments section below.