cyclamen gone weird

I usually put some Cyclamen Coum in some troughs in front of the house for some winter cheeriness and they do well. This year however they generally look a bit unhappy and although they are blooming, it is less than usual and a lot of the stems are very short so that blooms are opening almost below the tuft of leaves. The only thing I have changed are the troughs, though they are pretty much the same as the old ones but a wee bit less drainage perhaps.
Is it the weather? Is it too warm? Are they too wet? The soil feels moist but not waterlogged.

Any help appreciated.
GG

 

Hi GG if you could post a photo of your plants then it might show us what the problem could be.

If your flowers are opening albeit on short stems it might be because you have planted the corms too deep.As a rule of thumb I find that my Coums do best when the actual corm is sitting on top of the soil with the roots covered with a little soil or compost.If you have planted them too deeply then the flower stem will also be deep with just the tops of the flowers showing.

A photo for starters would be good if you can put one up

 

Thanks Kandy, I braved the chill and took a couple of snaps (taken with my phone so not the best quality) trying to show both the top and the corm which you can just see peeking out of the soil.

 

Are you sure that they are C. coum? They look far more like C. persicum leaves to me. Coum leaves do not have the little teeth on the edge of the leaves as these appear to have.

 

Ah perhaps you are right. My mistake no doubt. I bought them from the same nursery as usual and obviously didn't check properly. Does that make a difference in cultivation?

Thanks.
GG

 

If you have a look at my Coum photo in Members hobbies thread then you will see that my Coum leaves are heart shaped although a couple of your leaves do look a bit of the at shape.I see in the top photo that you have a seed pod forming on one of the flower stems so try not to take it off because if you are lucky you can get seeds off of it.

Your corms look like they are planted on the surface of the compost which is good.

I think the only reason the flowers don't look too good is that they are getting swamped by the amount of leaves on the plants which is hiding the flowers.If you want to see the flowers you could take off some of the excess leaves and also that dead leaf on the left (not the one that has gone to seed and is still alive )but then you might not be getting enough goodness down into the corm when it prepares to die down.

Apart from that they look fine to me.

 

Thanks for the replies.

Problem solved I think, I looked at the plant label and it says Cyclamen Shy & Retiring. Aww bless.

GG