Re: Cylamen seeds

marianoo@wanadoo.es wrote:
> My potted plant has just finished flowering and there appears to be
> some seed capsules. Do they produce viable seed and are they easy to
> germinate? Should I continue watering the plant until seeds ripen?
> And what do I care for the plant until next winter?
>
Maria
Cyclamen grow very easily from seed, which may be sown as soon as the
capsule opens up. If you don't then harvest them, the seeds will often fall back into the pot and grow there or anywhere else they happen to land. I sometimes have a few self-sown plants growing in the gravel floor of my glasshouse! The capsules don't need a great deal of water to complete development, but I suggest you continue to keep the soil slightly moist until they are fully grown.

Sow the seeds about 2 millimetres deep in any regular seed raisiing mix. If you use a fairly deep container and space them a few cms apart you should be able to leave the little plants until they have a definite bulb and two or three leaves before potting them on, especially if you give them an occasional liquid feed.. Continue after potting to keep them watered and growing in a cool but light place until after their first flowering. They don't need to go dormant until then.

Depending on how well they grow, most will be likely to flower first next year or else the year after. You might get some interesting new colours if you are lucky.

If there is anything else you want to know about this, please ask

Moira
Ps There are ever so many seeds in esch capsule, more than you may even want to sow and perhaps you should only let one or two of the present ones complete development. In future years you should break off most spent flower stems as the flowers fade and only leave one or two to develop capsules, If you regularly let a lot of capsules grow it tends to weaken the bulb.

Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan,
Wainuiomata, North Island, NZ.     Pictures of our garden at:-
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/cherie1/Garden/TonyandMoira/index.htm
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