Did you know that you can collect seeds from your cyclamen plant? This is if you’ve managed to keep it alive until now? This is the first year that I have actually made a concerted effort to properly care for a few of the cyclamens plants in my container garden, with the hopes of getting them to bloom again next year.
And along the way, after most of the blooms had ceased, the plant did start to look like it had a bunch of snakes coming out of the top, and I realized that those balls must indeed be seed pods. And fast forward a few months, and sure enough, I caught a few of them dried up and open, and full of seeds!
I did a little bit of research and it turns out that one needs to germinate the cyclamen seeds around July/August, and it may take 30-60 days for them to sprout, and this should be done in a dark cool spot. Sure would be fun to have a whole bunch of tiny cyclamens come winter! Keep in mind that in winter – when it’s quite dark and cold – you might need a proper LED lamp to make them grow.
Cyclamen seed pods dried and open….with tiny orange seeds
General Tips For Collecting Seeds From Flowering Plants:
- You must leave flower heads on plants that you want to set seed. If the plant produces enough flower stalks you can deadhead some and leave others to fall off naturally while seeds form.
- Before you can collect seed from any plant it must go through the whole cycle of flowering, developing seed, and ripening.
- Some plants develop seeds within pods (like the cyclamen), others hide their seeds inside fruits or berries, and others harbor their seeds directly inside the dying flower heads. In all cases, any seeds produced will develop in close proximity to the spot where the flowers originally grew.
- It’s best to let seeds ripen on the plants until they are *almost* ready to disperse on their own. Seeds collected too early will not be viable. Once seeds have finished growing they will generally change color (from whitish or green to tan, brown, or black) and begin to dry out. Pods will start splitting open, berries or fruits will shrink and wrinkle, or flower heads will begin to fall apart, dropping the seeds within.
- On many plants the seeds don’t ripen all at once (check daily), and it can be useful to tie a small paper bag or the toe cut from panty hose over the seed heads to prevent dispersal before you can harvest. If this method isn’t practical, collect the seed heads or pods before they are completely dried out (i.e. papery dry), and set aside to dry out indoors.
I I think I’ve got the seed collection idea down, and in fact have a whole archive of seeds I’ve collected, now I have to actually get around to sowing those seeds! Hmmm, not such a simple task in a container garden that has no expansion capabilities! In the mean time, my seeds are safely labled and stored, and who knows, maybe there will be some sowing in my future?
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