There are many amazing and different flower colors, shapes, sizes of cyclamens available. From the minis to the large flowered and leaved types, there's lot to choose from. Cyclamens also have heart shaped leaves are really beautiful, too. Some have variegated leaf edges so you not only get the beautiful flowers, you get attractive leaves.
It's a great plant for the holidays. You might even get one for Christmas. But if you want to have a beautiful colorful plant right through the winter, cyclamens are a great choice.
Cyclamens like bright light, cool temperatures, and some humidity. That is really key because if you don't give them enough humidity, they can get attacked by a little bug called spider mites. An easy way to keep it humid is to get a shallow tray, put some water in it, and add some pebbles. Take your little cyclamen plant and just put it right on top of the pebbles so the water doesn't touch the pot. As the water evaporates, it keeps it nice and humid around the plant. The spider mites don't like humidity. They like it dry, so this is a good way to keep spider mites away.
Now sometimes, even if you are a good gardener, things go wrong. They may wilt from over watering or insect attacks. There's a way to fix it. Even if the plants get spider mites or dry out when you forget to water them, you can just snip off all of the foliage, and they have little tubers in the soil that will send up new foliage. You just start over! As a matter of fact, the plants will go dormant in the summer, so at the end of the spring, just cut it all back, put it in the basement to sleep, bring it up in the fall, and you'll have cyclamen for next year, too.
By Charlie Nardozzi
