Solving the Mystery of Cyclamen Care

I will be honest– despite their reputation as easy-care houseplants, Cyclamen confound me. They seem to wilt the second they get too dry, and when I try to compensate for my neglect by overwatering them, their ungrateful leaves turn yellow.

I have to concede that cyclamen have lots of great pluses. The flowers float like butterflies over their deep green foliage. Even the heart-shaped leaves, with their silvery-green markings, are beautiful.

I'd like to do better by my cyclamen. It's not just a gardener's pride on the line. They're cheerful houseplants to have around in the dead of winter. They don't mind bright, indirect light and that makes them the perfect choice for my kitchen windowsill.

So I used this post as an excuse to learn a bit more about cyclamen care and will share some of the tips I've discovered along the way.

Cyclamen that are sold as houseplants at this time of year are often referred to as "florist's cyclamen".

In their Mediterranean homeland, Cyclamen persicum are a winter flowering plant. They come into growth in the autumn and bloom through the winter and early spring. Then they go dormant as the dry summer months approach.

Here are a few basics:

Light: Cyclamen like bright, indirect sunlight.

Temperature: Too much sunlight and heat will only serve to encourage your cyclamen into early dormancy. They prefer cool conditions, but they are not frost-hardy. An indoor daytime temperature of 65-70 degrees (18-22 Celsius) is perfect. Most homes are a little cooler at night and that's their preference too.

Water: Watering is where most people, myself included, go wrong. As I have discovered the hard way, cyclamen are very sensitive to soil moisture levels. When you do water, soak the soil thoroughly and let the excess water drain out of the pot. Then allow your cyclamen to dry out somewhat. More cyclamen die from overwatering than they do from drought. Water only when the soil just below the surface is dry to the touch.

One way to improve your success with cyclamen is to water from the bottom. That way you are assured that the moisture will reach right down to the bottom of the plant's roots. To water from the bottom, find a deep saucer or a container large enough to accommodate your cyclamen's pot and fill it halfway with water. Place your cyclamen into the container of water and wait until the soil in the cyclamen's pot is evenly moist (about 20 minutes).

If you opt to water from above, water the soil directly and avoid the foliage and central tuber. Water can rot the crown of the plant (particularly when the plant is in a dormant state).

However you choose to water, make sure you allow excess water to drain away completely. Like so many plants, cyclamen don't like soggy soil.

Dead leaves or flowers can be removed by simply giving them a sharp tug.

Humidity: Cyclamen like high humidity. If your house is as dry as mine, this can be a challenge. Setting the plant down on a shallow tray of water filled with pebbles can help keep the air around your plant moist.

Soil: A good quality all-purpose potting mix is best. If you peek through the leaves, you can see that cyclamen are planted with the tuber just slightly above the soil line.

Fertilizer: Fertilizing once a month with a water-soluble fertilizer is plenty. Too much fertilizer and your cyclamen will not rebloom.

Common problems:

Yellow leaves: Overwatering and too much heat will cause the leaves of your cyclamen to yellow. Yellow foliage in late winter/spring may also be a sign that your cyclamen is going into dormancy.

Wilted leaves and flowers: Wilted flowers and foliage are a sign of improper watering. The sudden onset of wilting may be an indication that the soil is too dry. Water your plant thoroughly and pinch off any leaves or flowers that do not respond.

Faded Foliage: Cyclamen are pretty resistant to indoor houseplant pests, but foliage that looks faded may be a sign of a spider mite problem. Look for fine webbing and check the undersides of the leaves for these tiny insects. If your cyclamen is infected, check your other houseplants as well. Spider mites often spread from one houseplant to another.

Depending on the severity of the infection, I'd consider disposing of the plant.

If you've caught things early, gently rinse or wipe the foliage clean. Isolate the cyclamen from other houseplants until you have the infestation under control.

Dormancy: After a cyclamen blooms, it will transition slowly into a dormant state. The leaves will begin to yellow and wither. At this point, you should stop watering your plant, and allow the leaves to die back. Then place your cyclamen in a cool, dry place for 8-10 weeks.

To bring a rested plant out of dormancy in the fall, move it back into the light and resume your normal watering regime.

I think what I need to do now is focus on getting my watering right.  How about you? What's your experience with cyclamen? If you have any great tips, please share!

Unexpected House Pests

Yikes! There's something on crawling on your houseplants! In her first post of 2017, Jean Godawa tackles the subject of unexpected and unwelcome visitors that seem to appear out of nowhere.

Before the middle of the 17th century, people believed that some animals could spontaneously generate under the right conditions. According to the wisdom of the time, you could make a colony of mice simply by putting some dirty rags and a bit of wheat into a barrel. Likewise, if you left a carcass of meat hanging, you could create a swarm of flies. The idea that the right conditions just attract these creatures from somewhere else was not even considered. We know better now thanks to science and experimentation.

But if you've ever had a fittonia in your house develop mealy bugs, seemingly out of nowhere, you might start to understand that 17th century mid-set. If you keep your plants indoors, you shouldn't have to think about insects, should you?

Unfortunately, indoor plants are just as susceptible to certain pests as their outdoor counterparts, but not by spontaneous generation. Introducing new plants into your home, leaving windows open, putting houseplants outside during good weather are all invitations for unwanted pests.

A favourite meal to ladybugs, aphids (Aphididae) are not just pests of outdoor plants. These tiny (approx. 4 to 8 mm) bugs are easy to recognize with their pear shape and two short, stick-like cornicles near their backside. Aphids can have both winged and wingless forms and vary in colour depending on the species.

In their winged form, they can fly into your home and lay eggs on your houseplants. Aphids can also hide on fruits and vegetables at the grocery store where they have unlimited food and no predators. If you bring home any produce, even with a single aphid on it, your houseplants could soon be covered in the pests. Aphids are one of the few insects that are capable of parthenogenesis. That is, they can reproduce without mating.

These creatures use a short, beak-like mouth to pierce plant leaves or shoots and suck out the fluid. They excrete a clear, sticky substance called honeydew, which can often invite mold growth. Because of the way they feed, aphids are also capable of transmitting plant viruses from one plant to another.

Typically, a few aphids on a healthy houseplant won't kill it but they can become a problem if you don't intervene. If your houseplant is a sturdy one, take it outside and knock off the aphids with a forceful blast of water from the hose. For more delicate houseplants, treat aphids with an insecticidal soap or horticultural oil.

If your houseplants start to develop a cottony white substance on the underside of leaves or on the stems, take a closer look. That white mass could be a group of plant sucking mealybugs (Pseudococcidae). These creatures are elongated, oval bugs coated with a waxy secretion and are common pests of houseplants.

Mealybugs can be difficult to control because they spread easily. Being so small, they can crawl undetected from one plant to another or can be transferred by a slight breeze. The waxy coating protects the bugs from too much or too little moisture as well as from insecticidal sprays.

When introducing a new plant to the home, keep it quarantined, away from your other houseplants, for a couple of months to make sure it's healthy and pest free. For small infestations, pick the bugs off by hand or use a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol to remove them. A small paintbrush dipped in mild dish soap can also help knock mealybugs off your plants. Unfortunately, you may need to discard a heavily infested houseplant to protect your other plants.

Another common houseplant and greenhouse pest is the whitefly (Aleyrodidae). At 2 to 3 mm long, this tiny pest can still cause quite a bit of damage. Like their aphid and mealybug cousins, whiteflies have a needle-like mouth they use to pierce plant tissue and suck out the fluid. Their feeding damages leaves and stems causing yellowing and wilting. The yellowish body and white wings of the whitefly are covered with a white powdery coating. These insects can also transmit plant viruses and can produce honeydew that fosters mold growth.

When immature whiteflies first hatch from their eggs, they crawl to a suitable area of the plant. As they develop, these larvae become oval, flattened and immobile until they pupate into winged adults. Insecticidal soaps are most effective on the immature bugs but will also work to get rid of the adults. Check the underside of leaves for the larvae if you notice whiteflies around your houseplants.

If leaves on your houseplants are dropping off or have yellow spotting (stippling) or webbing, particularly on the undersides, you may have a problem with spider mites (Acarina). These eight-legged creatures, relatives of spiders, may not be visible unless you look very closely, but their damage usually gives them away. Spider mites are another common destructive houseplant pest but they can be treated with insecticidal soap. As with all houseplant pests, it is better for the health of your other plants to discard a heavily infested one.

It would be easy to ignore or overlook scale insects (Coccoidea) as they look nothing like a typical insect. Throughout most of their immature lives, they have no antennae or legs and remain motionless while they feed. They often look like natural knots or bumps on stems. Some scale species are quite useful - shellac comes from a scale insect, as do some red dyes (cochineal). Despite this, many scale species are serious pests to indoor plants, and in large numbers can be very destructive.

While houseplants are typically protected from the multitude of potential pests outside, they are at a bit of a disadvantage indoors. An infested houseplant can't get help from any of the beneficial insects living in the garden. As much as I am fascinated by insects, I can't set a bunch of ladybugs loose in my home to deal with aphids and I'm not about to introduce parasitic wasps into my living room to get rid of scale insects on a ficus.

Our solutions for dealing with pests of indoor plants are more limited. Hand removal, trimming off infested leaves, applying insecticidal soap or horticultural oil can usually take care of most minor houseplant pests. 

The best option, though, is prevention. If you accept clippings from a friend or buy new plants, be sure to quarantine them first. Wash fruits and vegetables well when you bring them inside from the store or garden. If you put your plants outside in warm weather, frequently inspect them for unwanted pests.

If houseplant pests do show up, they could have hatched from eggs in the potting soil or entered through a slight crack around a window. Healthy plants can tolerate a few bugs and as long as you inspect plants often, and treat them early, pests are manageable.

Like mice in a barrel or rats on a ship, bugs don't spontaneously generate on indoor plants. Even though I know this, I am sometimes, very briefly, convinced that fruit flies can magically appear from another dimension. When I'm sure that I've thoroughly washed all the peaches in a basket from the market, those pesky little creatures will still be flying around my kitchen.

(Click this link to find out how to make your own insecticidal soap.)

Post written by Jean Godawa

Jean is a science teacher and writer. She has been writing science-related articles for print and online publications for more than ten years. Jean holds a degree in biology and environmental science with a focus on entomology from the University of Toronto. She has also conducted field research in the tropical rainforests of Asia and South America.

Photo Credits for this post: Many thanks to Leslie Ingram, David Capparet, Jeffery W. Lotz, Charles Olsen, Chazz Hesselein and Ken Sproule for allowing us to use of the photographs in this post.

New Houseplant Books: Inspiration, Natural remedies + A Giveaway

Photograph © Kindra Clineff/The Indestructible Houseplant

"For all the folks who hankered for houseplants, but didn't know where to start, and for all the people who picked up the wrong houseplant and thought its hasty demise was their fault, this book is for you. We are going to make houseplants happen, and your life is going to be transformed."

Tovah Martin from the Introduction to The Indestructible Houseplant

I picked this book to review, because I knew you are going to like it. 

Honestly, if you have been on the fence about keeping plants in the house, thinking they were too old fashioned, too difficult or too much bother, this book is the inspiration needed to change your mind. 

There is, of course, no such thing as a truly "indestructible" houseplant. You can kill any plant if you try hard enough! The two hundred indestructible plants in this book are ones that are going to prosper and look beautiful even in the face of some neglect and less than ideal conditions. 

The book's layout is well conceived. Each plant has its own chapter of information and a handy chart that offers a summary of key points such as light exposure, soil type and potential problems. The last item in each chart is a helpful list of possible companion plants.

"The Details" at the end of the book addresses important consideration such as light and humidity. There is helpful advice on watering, pruning, fertilizing, dealing with pests and repotting plants. 

What I liked best about this book is that it made me want to expand my collection of houseplants. 

I have always tended to put one plant in a traditional pot and call it a day. Now I see how boring and uncreative that is! I love the book's examples of plant combinations in interesting and quirky pots. Rest assured I will be searching garage sales and local flea markets this summer to find a few stools and plant stands like the funky ones I see in the book.

This next book is less glossy, but I chose it because it would be a really handy reference to have in your home library. 

What's Wrong with my Houseplant © Copyright by David Deardorff and Kathryn Wadsworth. All rights reserved. Published by Timber Press, Portland, OR. Used by permission of the publisher.

Last year I had a pest problem that I could not get under control. I ended up composting a bunch of the most badly affected houseplants. I wish I'd have had a book like this to help me confirm the identify of the culprit and figure out a solution to my problems.

What's Wrong with my Houseplant? opens with similar information regarding houseplant care and then profiles 130 indoor plants. There is information on light, temperature, water and humidity, potting medium, fertilizer and propagation that is intended to help you avoid problems in the first place. Each profile ends with a summary of common issues each plant experiences.

The final part of the book covers organic solutions of common problems. Some of the pictures of bugs and fungi are cringe-worthy, but they are bound to be a great assistance in helping you identify a problem and find an organic solution.

The Indestructible Houseplant at a Glance:

Book Author: Tovah Martin

Photographer: Kindra Clineff

Publisher: Timber Press

Format: Paperback

Pages: 288 pp.

Images: 165 color photos

What's Wrong with my Houseplant? at a Glance:

Book Authors: David Deardorff and Kathryn Wadsworth

Publisher: Timber Press

Format: Paperback

Pages: 304 pp.

Images: 245 color photos

Thomas Allen & Sons has kindly given me copies of the each book to give away. Because I will have to send these books through the mail, I will have to limit entry to readers in Canada and the USA.

Please leave a comment if you would like to be included in the book draw. The draw will remain open for the next 7 days. If you are not a blogger, you can enter to win on the Three Dogs in a Garden Facebook page. Please make sure there is a way for me to track down your email address should your name be drawn.