Persian Cyclamen: home care after purchase, how and when to transplant a flower, tips for following plant care

Professional flower growers, amateurs and just beginners, fascinated by the charm of cyclamen, encounter certain difficulties during the adaptation of the plant after purchase in the store.

In order for cyclamen to settle down at home on the windowsill, it is very important to maintain the plant with proper care. It should gain strength and strengthen.

To do this, you need to understand the features and rules of cyclamen care at home, both general and oriented to the "reboot" period, and carefully observe them. More details in our article.

Description

Reference! Cyclamen belongs to myrsin perennials and at the same time can be classified as primrose. Cyclamens are very diverse, represented by a number of varieties, more than 60, differing in colors, sizes, types of flowers. Of these, twenty are domesticated, which successfully grow and bloom in apartments.

The plant reaches a height of 15-35 cm. The rhizome of cyclamen is thickened, with a tuber in the idea of a flattened bulb (4 to 15 cm in diameter), from which petioles rise with a heart-shaped light or dark green foliage, often with speckled patterns of ashen gray color.

Bulbous tubers are strewn with buds, from which foliage is formed, which gathers in a rosette-type outlet. Peduncles grow from the central part of the tuber, they are longer than the leaves, and rise above the rosette with thin but strong stems, which are richly strewn with flowers, up to 60 pieces per plant.

They are small, slightly downward, and the petals go with a bend up. Interestingly, the flowers are hermaphroditic, have pistils and stamens. Coloring is presented in a rather wide range, from snow-white to deep purple. Most cyclamen flowers resemble tongues of flame or magical butterflies hovering over grass.

Flowering time depends on the variety., and when the flowering period ends, the tuber is exposed, it seems to creep out partially to the surface.

What to look for when buying a plant?

It is important to carefully examine the leaves and tuber (visible part) for rot. If such a precedent is found, the plant is not suitable for growing. A plant without signs of decay and damage to leaves is an option that will be optimal not only to please the flowers for a short time, but also as a long-lived plant. After all, the lifespan of a healthy plant can reach up to twenty years.
The best time of the year to buy cyclamen is the fall season.
It is preferable to take a plant that is preparing for flowering, with the first buds that have just begun to form, have not yet blossomed.
The top of the tuberous bulb must be visible.

Features of the condition of the flower after the store

Note! Typically, cyclamen, like other store plants, is located in peat or special substratum, and not in the soil mixture, which in almost all cases is saturated with a huge amount of growth stimulants.

If you do not transplant the plant or procrastinate with it, then it will die. Therefore, the first thing after the purchase is the transplant procedure.

When a lush flowering cyclamen flaunts on a shop window or counter, on which not a single bud is left, it must be understood that flowering has been going on for a long time. Given that plant biorhythms suggest 3-6 month activity cycles, interspersed with rest, then, most likely, it was not long to admire it.

You can buy such a plant, taking into account that after flowering is completed, you will need to send the handsome man to sleep. Basically cyclamens delight with flowers for almost the entire winter season, capturing at the same time November.

When is an immediate transplant required?

The roots come out through the drainage holes.
The pot is filled with peat or a kind of substrate, but not soil.
If the tuber rotted.
If the bulb-tuber is deeply buried, recessed into the soil mixture.

In the future, a transplant is done once a year, after the end of dormancy, before the formation of buds. On average, this happens in the middle of the summer season, when the formation of new leaves begins. This process requires a lot of nutrition and strength, the soil is depleted and therefore transplantation becomes a necessity.

Important! Flowering cyclamen or all studded with buds, do not transplant, this can threaten death.

How to transplant?

Next, consider how to transplant cyclamen at home.

Training

It is required to put the pot with cyclamen in a container with water for a day or a little more. This is necessary for the careful separation of the roots from the walls of the pot. This method is suitable if there is confidence that the tuber is not affected by rot.

Pot

If the roots do not come out of the drainage holes, then take a pot of the same volume. And if you climbed out, then the capacity is required a little more. There is a general rule - from the widest part of the onion-tuber, if you place it strictly in the center, to the wall should be 3 cm.

Must have drainage holes, at least four.

The soil

A couple of parts of leafy soil to connect with sand, humus, peat, taken in one piece. All components, individually, for disinfection are calcined in the oven for at least an hour. Drainage material is also disinfected in the same way.

Step-by-step instruction

Pour the drainage layer of expanded clay balls to the bottom.
Invest such a volume of soil so that a tuber with roots fits on top, with the condition that its tip will be slightly exposed, and the entire root system will fit freely in the pot space (we talked about the beneficial properties of cyclamen tubers, as well as how to plant them correctly) here).
To increase the viability of the plant, in the presence of a rich basal rosette, you can remove several old leaves, not cutting, but twisting them.
Remove cyclamen from the pot, gently brush off the substrate from the roots and tuber. If there is drainage, then carefully release the roots from its fragments.
Carefully inspect the roots, if there are dried or damaged, then cut them off, and sprinkle the "wounds" with charcoal powder.
Put the plant in a new soil, in the center.
Add evenly the soil mixture and gently slightly compact it around the tuber, but, in no case, tamp. When pouring the soil mixture, it is advisable to maintain cyclamen in weight in order to protect the roots from breaks as much as possible.
One third of the tuber should rise above the surface. However, there are nuances depending on the variety. For example, the Persian cyclamen, like many other varieties of this plant, likes to rise as a tuber, but the European tuber is completely closed.
Make moderate watering at a stage when the top layer of the soil, and this is 1.5-2 cm, is not yet sprinkled.
After all the moisture is absorbed into the substrate, do another watering and pour the outer layer.

Follow-up care

Very moderate watering, only after drying the soil mixture.
Watered from below, through the pan.
Fertilize moderately, at this stage it is easy to prevent overfeeding the development of buds.
Withered flowers and buds are pruned, and faded flower stems are removed. Peduncles and petioles are removed exclusively by twisting from the tuber. This is done very carefully so as not to damage the tuberous part and leave a fragment of the peduncle, as this increases the risk of rot.
After flowering, preparation begins for dormancy, when complementary foods are harvested, and watering is gradually reduced. During dormancy, tubers are stored in a cool room (for how to care for cyclamen during dormancy, read here).
Not all varieties of cyclamen go to sleep.

Important for further transplants! A pot of eight centimeters in diameter is suitable for a 12-18-month-old plant. For three-year olds and more, a diameter of 15 cm is required. The pot is taken a little more than the old one, since undeveloped roots quickly acidify and cyclamen will become ill. In the future, transshipment can be used as a transplant method.

How to care?

A transplant is not required if you are lucky to buy a plant with the following parameters:

soil of the correct type;
the tuber rises one third above the soil;
tuber and foliage are not affected by rot.

Find the right place

Cyclamen loves diffused light, does not tolerate direct sunlight. Indeed, in natural conditions, these flowers most often grow in forests, in the clearing between rare trees. Therefore, if it is not possible to put it near a window with such lighting, then it is necessary to shade the plant during direct sunlight.

Temperature

Cyclamen loves the cool. By type of vegetation, this is an ephemeroid, growth and color formation occurs only at low temperatures.

So the presence of a nearby battery is unacceptable, and Placing close to the glass during cold seasons will only be beneficial.

The correct temperature regime for the flowering period will be in the range from + 13 ° C to + 17 ° C.

The optimum temperature is + 12 ° C - + 13 ° C.

Watering

This plant is particularly demanding on moderate soil moisture. It is important to maintain a level of moisture at which the soil is not wet, but not dry, that is, slightly moist, soft. The earth should not be stony from dryness.

A test to determine if cyclamen is too dry: gently tilting the leaves, let them go. When there is enough moisture, the leaves rise immediately, and if the soil is dry, then longer. A severe lack of moisture is expressed by sagging foliage, as well as a loss of elasticity of the leaf plate.

Advice! Water is used at room temperature, having previously stood for two to three days.

Read more about how to properly water cyclamen, read in this article.

Humidity

Cyclamens do not like dry air, and direct spraying can damage them. Before flowering, you can spray water around, but without moisture on the foliage. Do it twice a week. During flowering, the problem of climate humidity is solved by placing nearby containers of water or a humidifier. Also suitable with a deep pan for a pot filled with wet sphagnum, expanded clay or pebbles.

Fertilizers

Since in most cases a store plant is crammed with stimulants, you need to help him “get off” doping, do regular top-dressing at first, and gradually reduce it to a minimum.

Mineral fertilizers and organics are applied during flowering once every 14 days. You can also use liquid compositions for indoor flowers no more than once every 30 days. Nitrogen fertilizers are used very rarely and minimally, they can adversely affect the cyclamen root system.

You can find out how and how to feed cyclamen for abundant flowering here.

Useful video

Watch a video about transplanting and caring for cyclamen after purchase:

Conclusion

Cyclamen blooms amazingly beautifully and does it in the cold seasonswhen additional impressions are so important, when the gray-white landscape is sorely lacking in shades. Separately, it is worth mentioning the aroma of individual varieties.

Cyclamen smells wonderful, aromatic oils are made from it, it is a kind of hit among perfume notes, without which many famous perfumes would simply not have taken place. Fragrant or simply colorful cyclamen will turn any home into a fairy-tale world.