My cyclamen is quite old; it's been growing with me for a long time. It delighted me with its wonderful flowers in December and January.
When the flower finished blooming, I decided to rejuvenate it. The flower was growing in a small pot, containing two tubers. One large one was in the center of the pot, with three rosettes on it. You can read more about cyclamens in this note.
The second one was small, with a single rosette, right at the edge. I transplanted it to a separate container, but soon its leaves wilted and drooped. Perhaps the roots were damaged, or I overwatered it. The transplanted cyclamen died.
I also have a young plant that grew from seed in the same pot. In the spring of 2020, I transplanted it into a small box, and then into a pot in February of this year. It has developed a small tuber and good roots. It's grown a little in a month, and I hope it will delight me with its first bloom this fall or winter.
Propagation by seeds
My old cyclamen had produced one flower stalk and when it withered, I decided to collect the seeds and sow them.
On February 10th, I sowed five dry seeds in a box with soil, wrapped it in a plastic bag and placed it on the windowsill.
I soaked five seeds, spread them on a damp cotton pad, and wrapped them in a bag, leaving them in a warm place. I checked periodically to see if they were sprouting. But a month passed, and there was no change in either the soil or the cotton pad.
I decided my experiment had failed and removed the box from the windowsill. I placed it in a bag with the seeds that hadn't sprouted—Flamenco peppers, Datura metel Ballerina flowers—and left it on the planter shelf.
The other day I was fertilizing my houseplants, adding fresh soil, cleaning the shelf, and discovered this packet. When I opened it, I was overjoyed: the cyclamens in the box had sprouted, all five of them.
All the other seeds were unchanged. I threw out the cyclamen on the disk and the peppers, but planted the datura seeds in a box with the cyclamen sprouts. Maybe the datura seeds will germinate in the soil after all.
Propagation by rosettes
I also tried growing a new flower from a rosette. I carefully separated one rosette from the tuber.
I planted it in a small pot with moist soil and covered it with a plastic bag. After three weeks, I removed the bag. Two new leaves appeared on the rosette.
The rosette took root, but soon froze. My husband, while airing the room, forgot to close the window, and it was freezing outside. And my flowers froze too—the pink and white geranium was gone, two violets and a coleus froze.
This is what the cyclamen looks like now, it has only two living leaves, all the others are frozen and withered.
I carefully removed them and covered the flower with a plastic bag. I'll see if it's any good; I can always throw it away.
This is my old cyclamen. Even without flowers, it looks festive.
While it's still growing new leaves, it might even delight you with a spring bloom. Then it will go dormant, some of its leaves will die off, and new ones won't appear. This wonderful flower will rest, gathering strength for its winter bloom.