How To Get An Outdoor Cyclamen To Rebloom Next Year

If you have never had the pleasure of enjoying blooming cyclamen in your garden or container garden, or are currently wondering what to do with the cyclamen plants you do own that don’t seem to be flourishing, you are in the right place! Cyclamen are often given as late fall and winter gifts, though once the flowers have died and the leaves start to turn yellow, most folks toss them. But please don’t, as with the correct light and temperature, cyclamen plants can come back year after year.

The lovely red cyclamen plant seen here was actually rescued from a roadside pile of cyclamens that had been removed from flower beds in the military cemetery just up the street, to plant something new and lovely for memorial day, which was yesterday. Having owned a few cyclamens here and there, and with one currently in my collection, I know that they are certainly not trash and will rebloom from year to year. I do understand of course why they were removed and treated more like winter annuals, but for those of us who can place the not so great looking plants somewhere, it is surely worth it! I now have 7 new cyclamen plants in a range of colors, (the red ones are still going strong, other not so much) and can’t wait until next winter when they’ll hopefully rebloom! Okay, but lets figure out how I’m going to get there!

Outdoor Cyclamen Care After Flowering

Depending of course on where you live, outdoor planted cyclamen will die back and go through the dormant period naturally. They will begin to flower the following year without needed intervention, as temperatures in the ground change and rainfall increases. It just so happens that cyclamen is a native plant that blooms in areas near my home, so if I had a garden with planted cyclamen tubers I might not have to do anything.

However, my cyclamen plants are all in pots, so will need a bit more care. My plants are at the end of the blooming season, but with many tiny buds still at the base of the plants, I will continue to water them, remove dead leaves, and flower stalks after the blooms fall. If you leave the flower stalk it will become a seed pod, which is nice if you want to try growing cyclamen from seeds. If you remove the stalks at the base, this encourages more blooms, so that is what I generally do. After there are no more blooms and the plant is looking quite scraggly, proceed as follows:

When the leaves begin to turn yellow, gradually reduce the amount of water given to the plant
Remove any dead or dying foliage even if the plant becomes totally bare.
Once all leaves and foliage have died, the bulb will become dormant
Ensure the plant is away from bright or direct sunlight, and leave in a cool (but not freezing) place.
Do not water the plant during the dormant period, normally six to eight weeks long
When new growth begins to show through the top of the soil, move into a light area and water thoroughly, or, when the weather starts to indicate that fall has arrived, you can start watering the plant.
Feed potted cyclamen monthly using an indoor plant food, as they begin to flower (I have not done this and only get a few blooms usually, so will start doing this.)

The blooms are truly lovely, and I have 3 red cyclamen on my kitchen window sill where I can nurture them a bit, and enjoy them throughout the day. Interestingly enough, when I rescued this plant, it had many many leaves that were actually taller than the flowers. We had a hot spell and the plant didn’t get enough water for one day, and many of those tall leaves turned yellow, so I plucked them. And voila, now you can see the blooms!