In the wild, there are about 20 species of cyclamen, although you would probably have to be a botanist to differentiate between them. Just one species, C. persicum, has provided the basis of the florists' cyclamen, but in the hundreds of years of selective breeding within this species, a wide range of forms has been selected, and the cyclamen now represents great value as a winter pot plant, providing many months of colour for a relatively cheap price. For a price of about $10, you can have flowers in the house for months on end.
Just a few tips are needed for growing these plants in pots. They need good drainage but also like moist soil, so it is important to make sure they are in moisture-retentive soil but not sitting in a saucer full of water. When watering, water the soil and not the corm, and also ensure you let the water free drain. It also pays to water early in the day to allow the water to soak through the plant and let the corm dry out again before the evening. If these steps are not followed, the plants are prone to mildew.
When growing potted plants inside, it also pays to be a bit canny about light levels as, cyclamen do best in bright, indirect or curtain-filtered sunlight - if they are exposed to direct, hot sunlight they will probably develop burns on their leaves.
Like most potted plants, it pays to give the pots a little feed every now and then, especially if you are looking to retain them for more than one season. The easiest thing to do is to apply a liquid fertiliser on a regular basis - perhaps once a fortnight. Remember to put this on in the early part of the day, and try and avoid the corm.
Once the plant has finished flowering, there is no reason to discard it - you can either plant it in the garden in a shady spot protected from frost, or you can put it in a cool spot for the summer months, reducing the watering, and then re-pot it in fresh potting mix next autumn for winter.
Among the potted varieties available nowadays, there is quite a range, with plain colours, as well as picotees and other multicoloured forms, and there are wavy forms, and some with strange protrusions.
I am especially fond of the smaller forms, many of which come with a rich scent. I have great memories of going into the glasshouse we had dedicated to growing potted miniature cyclamen in the early morning, and being greeted by the cheery flowers and the heady scent. These are generally less than half the height of the standard forms and usually grown in smaller pots.
Even smaller and certainly less well known are the dwarf species, found throughout the Mediterranean area. The best known of these is the diminutive ivy-leaved species, C. hederifolium, which is sometimes seen naturalised in extensive swathes in large gardens, its carpet of shining white and soft pink flowers always looking stunning in later summer and early autumn.
I have grown this in pots in the glasshouse, along with its slightly less hardy cousin, C. africanum, which has marginally longer stems in my experience.
Among the other forms I have grown is the lovely winter flowering C. coum, with rounded leaves, usually deep green, but sometimes marbled with silver and, in some special strains, pewter coloured. The flowers, which are slighter stumpier than other species, are usually pink, of varying shades, with a deep maroon blotch at the bottom of each petal.
This species is quite hardy - it is naturalised in parts of Great Britain, so should be perfectly fine in New Zealand. It is also reasonably able to look after itself in the garden. I grow most of my small cyclamen in the glasshouse, not because they are not hardy, but because that way I can get to see them easier and can appreciate their beauty better.
Like all cyclamen species, they set seed readily, contained within a capsule that sits just above soil level, but is spring loaded. When the seed is ready, the seeds are rapidly dispersed and germinate where they land, meaning I have pots that end up with more than one species.
Over summer, my iris seedlings are grown underneath the glasshouse benches, each 100mm pot holding a separate seedling. Imagine my surprise when I discovered some C. coum growing in the iris beds this winter.
I can only assume they must have been dropped into the seedling pots before they were planted out and have germinated in the potting soil when it was placed into the iris beds.
I think it goes to show C. coum is hardier than generally thought and could well be used to provide a bit of extra colour in winter.
