Potted cyclamen AND question about planting bulbs.

[IAteMakkaPakka]

I have a potted cyclamen which was one of those things you buy in full bloom knowing it will be wilting within the week. However, a year later and after a near-death drought experience it has started producing loads of blooms, on and off for the last 3 or 4 months. I cut them as they wilt and more keep coming.

I am scared to repot it but the foliage looks really miserable and all the blooms and leaves are on long thin wilty stalks, so it looks a bit sad. What do you think, ordinary potting compost and keep it where it is (windowsill but with no direct sun)?

Secondly, you know that offer MN did a few months back to get 200 bulbs for a fiver or something? Well, I just found the package . Too late to do anything with them? If it's worth it I'll spend a couple of hours planting them, but not if it's definitely destined to fail!

I don't know about the cyclamen.

For the bulbs, what kind are they?

Your bulbs - if you plant them now, they may not flower well, but they will survive and give you flowers next year. They need to put on leaves to build the bulbs to give them energy to produce the flowers the following season. Stick them in pots and repot in August, or plant them directly in the ground where you hope to get flowers the following year.

Cyclamen - depends on what type it is. I'm assuming it's a large flowered indoor type (not hardy, won't survive outside in the frost). The leaves will probably die back as the corms go into a period of dormancy, so I'd leave it til the plant has stopped flowering and then repot. Ordinary potting compost should be fine. Then keep it somewhere cool, out of direct sunlight etc - not near a radiator! Don't over water as this will rot the corm.

Wow thanks folks. The bulbs are a maixture. The cyclamen seems to be doing amazingly well with neglect, including periodic lack of water.