The Backstory

A couple of years ago I bought a cyclamen.  I was having a bunch of people over for Thanksgiving and the patio off the dining room looked like death.  The large volume of red flowers on the Cyclamens at the hardware store was an easy fix.  I’ve heard they are hard to grow and that they usually die after the winter, but I was willing to give it a try.  My new plant went into a large pot visible from the back door in a fairly shady spot.  In the spring, as the flowers died back, I noticed that a couple of them had made seed pods.  Being a plant person, I couldn’t just leave them.  This was an opportunity! So I did a bunch of research online on how to start them from seed.

How NOT to Do It

It’s very difficult, according to the internet, to grow a Cyclamen from seed.  You need cold, and darkness, and it takes a very long time.  I did my best to provide the prescribed conditions, and hoping that since Cyclamens come from a Mediterranean climate like my own, any mistakes would be mitigated.  I was delighted to get 5 sprouts!  I was so careful with them, but only one survived.  I thought perhaps the internet was right and this WAS hard.  It didn’t help that the clamshell plastic container that I used (because the internet said I needed a lid) was shallow and prone to drying out.

My one surviving plant from my first try. It’s grown a second leaf which makes me very happy.

The Epiphany

I consoled myself with the fact that I could buy more of these festive winter flowerers and the next winter bought myself a cheerful pink and white one.  Like the one before it (which is still going strong, unlike what the internet predicted), it did very well. Both plants had masses of flowers and ended up making heaps of seeds.  I collected them and decided to give it another try.  The seeds I collected were waiting inside for the weather to get cold.  After all, the internet says 104 degree days are not the time to grow a Cyclamen.  Around September, I was examining plant #2 for new leaves.  This summer’s heat hit it hard but it was coming back.  I noticed some small leaves that didn’t look like the big curled new growth on the plant I bought.  They looked like the sprouts I got last year!

Three of the 5 sprouts that grew themselves in the pot with their mother plant.

You’re kidding me.  All they need is the conditions around their mother plant.  I transplanted the sprouts to their own pot.  A windstorm killed one, but the rest are going strong.

My cyclamen collection… and a mass of oxallis in the big pot.

Success

I grabbed a glazed pot, filled it with quality potting soil, and sprinkled on some seeds.  The established plants had a layer of leaf litter from the last year’s spent leaves that seemed to provide good protection from the sun and hold in moisture, so I covered the pot with some spent Cyclamen and Oxallis leaves because that’s what I had on hand.

Leaf litter covering freshly planted seeds.

It took several weeks but I started to see the seeds swell and form small bulbs.

There! Right in the middle of the photo! It’s a tiny cyclamen bulb.

I knew I had the formula right when I saw that I had a leaf climbing out from the leaf mulch.

Yes, that’s a leaf, although it kind of looks more like a mung bean sprout…

The key really seems to be keeping them moist.  I let my pots sit in a shallow pool of water so they can wick up what they need.

Sprouts in progress. In the square pots are attempt #1 and the volunteers. The larger yellow round pot has attempt #2. The small round pots have the last of the seeds planted today.

I’m crossing my fingers that they keep growing.  The second leaf appearing on my plant from attempt #1 is encouraging.  I’m really curious to find out what color flowers they have.  All their leaves are different from their parent plants, so I really can’t say what color flowers I’ll get, if they decide to flower at all.  I imagine I have at least another year, maybe two, to wait.

So the Internet is Wrong…

I guess you can’t trust all the garden know-how posted on the internet.  Here’s a recap of things I’ve learned:

• Cyclamens aren’t hard to grow, but they do need the right conditions.  Direct summer sun will nuke their leaves, but they can recover. Bright shade seems to be best.
• Don’t keep them indoors either.  They aren’t house plants.
• They are not difficult to grow from seed, but again, you need the right conditions.
• Temperature isn’t really an issue.
• Moisture seems to be key.  Covering the seeds with leaf litter really helps with this and keeps the light off (if that even matters).
• A deep, glazed or plastic pot will prevent the pot from drying out.
• Keep some water in the saucer to provide constant moisture to the seedlings.
• You don’t need to grow them in a dark cold closet.  It sounded insane when I read it but enough sites said it, so I thought it might be true.