Cyclamen

Florist cyclamen is a cool-weather plant with flowers that look like they are flying away: swept-back petals in white, pink, rose, red, and purple over heart-shaped leaves marbled with silver. It blooms in the months when almost nothing else does. Clemson and NC State both treat it as a potted plant, and that is how to use it, in a covered entry pot or a shaded porch planter for fall and early winter.

In the Upstate

Here is the honest part. NC State says florist cyclamen is winter hardy only in zones 9 to 11 and is frost tender, and Greenville is zone 8a. It loves a Greenville October and November, when Clemson’s ideal range of 60 to 65°F days and about 50°F nights is close to what we get. It does not love a hard freeze. On a covered porch out of the wind it can carry on through mild stretches, but when a real freeze is forecast it needs to come inside or you accept that it may be done. Do not plant it where it will sit in sun, either: above 70°F the buds fail, so a spring planting is a short one.

In a container

Cyclamen is a filler for a shaded pot, 6 to 16 inches tall depending on the type, in a mound about as wide. It is usually the color in a fall arrangement with ivy or ferns, or a pot of its own by a door under cover. Water when the mix feels dry to the touch, and Clemson is specific about how: along the edge of the pot or from below, so the tuber and crown stay dry. Plan on swapping it out once hard cold or spring warmth ends the show.

Care

Cool, bright shade and careful watering are the whole job. Pull spent flower stems off cleanly at the crown to bring on more buds, which Clemson says can extend the show. Keep it away from heat vents if it comes inside. The thing that kills cyclamen is tuber rot from water sitting on the crown or in a soggy pot, and the thing that stops it blooming is heat.