Expert: Diana Hamilton - 7/4/2009

Question
QUESTION: i have used the expertise of all experts and have never been disappointed. i love this site.
my question is that i have a cyclamen which has been flowering for months and is now finishing up. a friend mentioned that after all has died down, she keeps her plant in the same place and just gives it a spot of water from time to time till the growing season starts again. what do you say? many thanks in advance for your answer. sincerely, thelma

ANSWER: Dear Thelma,

Oh my goodness, I hope I am not going to disappoint you!  What I say is, if it works for your friend then it should work for you, however what I do is keep the tuber in the same pot in a cool place allowing the soil to become dry and then around July I repot in fresh compost - the tuber should be buried to half of it's depth.  Place the pot in a cool but well lit spot and keep the compost moist.  Flowering will then take place over the winter and well into the New Year.

Whatever you do I hope you have a fantastic display of flowers whenever your plant starts growing again.  I don't know what happens in Israel but over here in Europe cyclamen are grown to be bought in flower from about September to Christmas but with good care can continue flowering for several more months - yours has done really well to still be flowering.

Good Luck

Diana

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: dear diana, thank you so much for your reply, just one more and perhaps dumb question. when you say "buried to half of it's depth, do you mean that half of it should be above ground? i have read this somewhere before, but don't understand that. i have had a lot of luck with orchids, but this is a first for such a great cyclamen and i haven't got the heart to just throw it away, besides i like the challenge. thanks again. thelma

Answer
Dear Thelma,

Yes you are quite right, half in the earth, half protruding.

Am interested to know that you have had luck with orchids - I was given one for my birthday at the end of March - it has stopped flowering now but loads of off shoots have appeared and it looks very healthy.  Have you ever cut off the offshoots or do you just let them continue growing in the same pot?

I have another orchid which I bought myself about two years ago - I treat them both the same but the first one just sits there doing nothing!!!

Perhaps you should be an allexperts expert on orchids - I have never grown them before so I don't know much about them as I stated in my profile!

Hope your cyclamen does well later this year.

Diana