Cyclamen

[ismiledather]

I have cyclamen all over one bed but it doesn’t seem to ever flower. It also seems very hard to find the bulb type things to dig out.

Any advice?

Have you been digging there? I wonder whether cyclamen don’t like to be disturbed? Dh dug over a bed before I had finished lifting out bulbs, and the cyclamen there were damaged. The following year they put out a few leaves, no flowers. The next few years, more and more leaves, but still no flowers. Last year, 3-4 years since the damage, they flowered.

We had planted a shrubbery, and fertilised regularly for the first few years. As cyclamen naturally grow in fairly poor soil, perhaps this stopped them flowering.

My gardening philosophy is ‘leave it and see what happens’, so I did not lift the damaged corms. If you really do want to lift them but can’t find them, you may be digging too deep. Cyclamen corms sit quite shallow in the soil. They are flat and do not look like bulbs. (Which was why dh did not realise he was digging them over.)

They might be too deep to flower according to the RHS website. They say Plant tubers 3-5cm deep.

What do the leaves look like as the could be Autumn or Spring flowering. I wonder if they do flower but you are missing their flowering time.

I think years ago I planted one. No idea if it was spring or winter flowering. I didn’t even know they could flower at different times. I guess next year I’ll leave the leaf longer to see if it flowers.

Really grateful for your knowledge and help @AlwaysGardening@Dilbertian@Fibrous

What do you mean leave the leaf longer? I never remove the leaves on mine, whether or not they flower.

@Dilbertian I thought I was going to get rid of it cos it doesn’t flower so removed the leaves trying to dig it out.