Cyclamen- the second year

I have some small Cyclamen, variety "4-pack from Aldi" that oversummered and are now showing strong new growth.

They have formed small bulbs over the summer. Should the bulbs be below the soil or can they be partially exposed?

I chucked the plants into a shallow-ish display pot to flower and whilst they are doing well, I'm not sure if they should be planted a bit deeper.

Also, they never went dormant over the summer but showed tiny bits of growth, should I have dug them up to dry or just let them be? I'm assuming they are near- native variety to survive all last winter outdoors.

Thanks!

 

Are they bulbils or seed pods? Seed pods are on long coiled spring like stems.

They usually grow with the corm slightly above the surface.

I dont think they actually need to go totally dormant, a couple of mine have dried out and died over the summer.

 

The bulbs (or corms) are smooth, brown and about the size and shape of Werther's Original sweets.

So far so good, but I wonder if the bulbs/corms will be ok when the frosts arrive? A leaf mulch feels like a good idea but it wouldn't stay in place unless I carefully pin each leaf down with a decorative pin

 

I dont think this kind are not totally hardy and could suffer if the frost is too hard.
Not tried them outside in winter so cant help regarding how hardy they are.

 

@shiney, what species of Cyclamen are yours?

I have tried three types, and the toughest seem to be the Cyclamen hederifolium, which have survived being taken over by more virulent plants during the summer, which got cut back this autumn and the Cyclamen hederifolium underneath were beginning to flower, and are now producing a lot of their decorative leaves.

I also have some Cyclamen persicum now in their third autumn, which I bought from Morrisons and they were labelled as for outdoors. They are reasonably tough regarding other plants growing over them in the summer and then getting cut back in the autumn so these Cyclamen can have the big pot to themselves all autumn, winter and spring. They flowered constantly last year from early autumn, all through winter, to late spring. They were totally fine with winter cold, but I lost one of them during the summer because of other plants growing over it in the same pot. The two that survived coped this past summer with violas and lobelia growing over them. The one that was lost the summer before had alyssum growing too much in the pot. I have found that both lobelia and alyssum are best cut back more than I had been doing, and even a late cutting back of the lobelia this August has given another fresh flowering. I find that for me the lobelia are perennials if I just cut them back but don't pull out their roots. They came back this spring with great strength, and I like the big swathes of deep blue.

The original hardy Cyclamen persicum have seeded themselves a lot.

About three weeks ago I bought some more Cyclamen persicum from Morrisons, two pots for one pound each, but I hadn't looked properly and the pots say they are house plants, for indoors. I had already planted them outside so I decided to just leave them and see what happens. They were packaged in the same way as the hardy outdoor variety had been in previous years, and looked the same. Anyway they are now full of new buds, and I saw a huge bumble bee choosing their flowers above any others in my garden. Fingers crossed that they survive the winter, but they should look pretty until first frosts at very least. I read somewhere that there isn't a lot of difference between Cyclamen persicum sold for outdoors and those sold for indoors. I have very little window space indoors, with not very good light, and I am not good with houseplants, and I have read that Cyclamen persicum don't really like being indoors anyway and usually die due to the wrong conditions.

I have also tried growing Cyclamen coum from seed about three years ago, and I really struggled with those seedlings, removing aphids with a tiny paintbrush and trying to get them to thrive. I think in the end they must have got overgrown by other stronger plants, though maybe I will get a nice surprise and find their flowers suddenly appearing one spring, when most other things have been cut back. They really took a long time to get to any size and seemed to be taking forever to flower.

 

My hardy ones are C. hederifolium and they only flower once, they are in flower now, I believe C. coum tends to flower in late winter and spring.
I think they were the only two that were considered totally hardy.

With milder winters I think some of the small flowered florists cyclamen are tending to be hardy enough to get through.

 

Today as I was tidying my garden I found the leaves of the Cyclamen coum whose seeds I planted three years ago, among Violet leaves. Fingers crossed that they flower this winter.

 

@shiney, your fourth picture definitely looks like Cyclamen hederifolium, with its ivy-shaped leaves. I am not sure about your fifth picture. I think your others are Cyclamen coum, but I am no expert. They are very beautiful.