A splash of colour found from indoor flowers

Adding some colour to the indoor décor at this time year is as easy as looking the nearest florist shop or grocery store.

Here, shooting stars, or cyclamen persicum cultivars shades of red, pink, purple and white are bursting with blooms above green leaves marbled with silver. An easy care houseplant, cyclamen requires a cool room with bright, but indirect light.

They can reach 20 centimetres high and wide and have no real pest or disease problems other than too much care. Indoor gardeners with a heavy watering hand tend to overdo it causing the stems can go mushy and the corm begin to rot. A selfwatering pot, like the kind used for African violets, eliminates guesswork. Or the use of a moisture meter is advantageous. If the plant is in a regular pot with drainage holes, water from the bottom, allowing it to take up what it needs and discard the rest.

Photo by Judith Rogers Cyclamen blooms for several months, starting in autumn. Cyclamens start to bloom in late autumn and will continue for several months, but naturally go dormant in late spring. At this time, the leaves turn yellow and wilt, dying off to expose the corm planted just at soil level. 

No further watering should occur now, other than to moisten the soil surface lightly every couple of weeks — so the corm doesn’t completely dry out — and keep it in a shady area, inside or outdoors.

If placed outside for the summer, store the pot on its side the plant does not become saturated from rain.

By August, the corm can be lifted and repotted in fresh sterilized soil. Recognize the top of the corm by its slight

hollow, and it should be covered half way with soil. Give the plant a watering and place it in a lightly shaded area.

New shoots will soon appear and become more vigorous, as the temperature cools in September. By midmonth, the cyclamen is ready to come back indoors and be placed ideally in an eastern facing window. This location receives morning sun, which is gentler than afternoon rays, and leaves should now start to grow.

Fertilizing should take place every two weeks throughout winter, with a liquid 15-30-15 to keep the plant healthy and blooming, and a revitalized cyclamen should start to bloom in December.

Cyclamen persicum grows wild in Turkey, Israel and Algeria, with a native habitat of open dry scrublands, rocky hillsides and woodlands. The florist variety of cultivars are mass produced as pot plants in Holland and Germany, and not meant to be planted outside permanently as they are frost tender.

There is, however, C. hederifolium, a type hardy to Zone 5, which has pale pink flowers in autumn. It will grow well in a woodland garden rich with humus that is dry in summer.

These plants will likely need mulch for winter protection in this area, but are worth a try, to have little jewels of colour into autumn.

Visit my website at http://lavendercottagegardening.blogspot.com.