Cyclamen
Cyclamen persicum
Through the year 🗓️
☀️ Summer now
Dormant. Stop feeding, water barely if at all, and park the tuber somewhere cool, dry and shaded.
🍂 Fall
New leaves signal wake-up: repot in fresh mix if needed, resume bottom-watering and feeding.
❄️ Winter
Peak season. Keep it cool (50s–60s °F), bright and evenly watered for the longest flower show.
🌱 Spring
Enjoy the tail end of bloom, then let watering taper naturally as leaves start to yellow toward dormancy.
The details
Light & placement
- Light
- Bright indirect; a cool east window is ideal, since hot direct sun shortens the bloom
- Ideal PPFD
- 100–250 µmol·m⁻²·s⁻¹
- Grow-light distance
- 18–24 in below LED
Water & feed
- Watering method
- Bottom-water: set the pot in an inch of water for 15–20 min, then drain. Water splashed on the tuber crown invites rot.
- Fertilizer
- Balanced feed at ½ strength, monthly while in leaf and bloom (fall–spring); none during summer dormancy.
Home & habit
- Soil
- Light, humus-rich mix with perlite; pH 5.5–6.5
- Humidity
- Average–high (50–60%)
- Temperature
- 50–68 °F; cool rooms prolong bloom, while over 70 °F triggers early dormancy
- Mature size
- 6–9 in tall & wide
- Repotting
- In late summer as new growth stirs; keep the top ⅓ of the tuber above the soil
- Propagation
- Seed (slow but reliable); tuber division is risky and rarely worth it for home growers.
When something looks wrong
- Overwatering signs
- Yellowing leaves with wet soil, a soft or moldy tuber, collapsing flower stems
- Underwatering signs
- Whole plant wilts dramatically flat; it usually revives after a bottom soak
- Common pests
- Cyclamen mites, aphids, fungus gnats, botrytis on spent blooms
Common problems 🩺
The usual suspects when Cyclamen looks unhappy. Most houseplant trouble is watering or light, not disease — see all plant problems if you are not sure which plant is the culprit.
Leaves yellowing and dying back in spring
Likely cause
Normal dormancy, not death. Cyclamen rest through the warm months.
What to do
Ease off water, let it die back, and keep the tuber dry and cool until fall. It returns.
Mushy stems collapsing at the base
Likely cause
Water sitting in the crown around the tuber.
What to do
Water from below, or at the soil edge — never over the top of the tuber.
Few or no blooms
Likely cause
Too warm. Cyclamen want cool rooms and stop flowering in central heating.
What to do
Move it somewhere bright and cool, ideally under 65°F, and keep it out of warm drafts.
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