Do you all know Cyclamen? It is a very common flower, and it is no coincidence that, according to data from the main large-scale retail chains, it is the best-selling flower in supermarkets. The reason is simple, they are easy to care for, manage and keep alive. But precisely for this reason they are sometimes of decidedly lower quality. To avoid unpleasant surprises, we at Orizzonte Energia have drawn up a small handbook on the advice to follow to purchase a good quality product. Below are 5 practical tips for choosing well and taking care of your beloved cyclamens.
Let’s start by clarifying, for the less experienced, that cyclamen are beautiful flowers with extremely thin but also incredibly solid stems. They come in various sizes and colors, ranging from white to lilac to purple but also red and similar. They are mainly found in the cold seasons and are happy to grow on all humid surfaces . Places where you can find them without problems, in fact, are the woods and shady meadows throughout Italy. The Mediterranean forest climate is their favorite place to grow healthy, beautiful and strong. But not being a particularly “spoiled” flower, it also does very well in city apartments.
Supermarket cyclamen: purchasing advice
Let’s start from an assumption, the cyclamen is an ornamental plant and is extremely appreciated by all lovers of indoor plants. The problem is that, being easily available, it is not sold by nurseries but essentially in large-scale retail trade. And for this reason he is not always treated in the best way. It often arrives in our homes full of imperfections. The plant that is not cared for correctly suffers profoundly. And if you don’t treat it with due care once you get home, it could get worse, thus ending its days in an extremely uncomfortable manner. The problem obviously arises first of all for the buyer, who perhaps inexperienced, returns home with a brand new plant, which however, unknowingly, is about to end its days. Our advice will help to avoid this dramatic epilogue. Let’s see them in detail.
The first thing to evaluate, before taking a cyclamen to the crate, is to check its state of health. You will be able to do very little from home if you bring a cyclamen into your home that clearly doesn’t want to make it. The color and state of the leaves are extremely indicative. A healthy cyclamen, it has rich foliage with a lively dark green color. Shades or small speckles are often visible which vary the shade. But the healthy leaf will be visible even at the simple glance of an inexperienced person. A pale, drooping leafit is indicative of a profound state of abandonment. It means that the plant has not received the appropriate care for a long period. Lack of water but above all of the very important direct sunlight. These two conditions are for obvious reasons essential to allow the plant to grow luxuriantly.
What to pay attention to when buying cyclamens
If there are spots on the leaves, the problem is unfortunately much deeper than the “simple” lack of light or water. In this case the plant is fighting with the presence of a fungus or some specific disease. The best you can do in this case is to notify a store employee. Therefore make sure that this does not spread to other plants. Now that you have checked the state of the leaves, all that remains is to move on to the state of the buds, the true protagonists of this plant. It is not enough to have a perfectly ripe and elegant flower in front of you with its thick “petalous” foliage . No, not at all, rather check that there are other buds on the stem that have not yet opened.
A bloomed cyclamen probably indicates growth in a greenhouse kept at a specific temperature , but it does not guarantee that the cyclamen will later produce other buds. The strong presence of flowers that have not yet opened indicates the very strong possibility that your flower will continue to continue healthy for several more weeks. Finally, the last two extremely important things to check before bringing this new plant home are the size of the plant and the state of the soil. In fact, as with the more common basil, the pots are often too small to allow healthy growth, so it will need to be repotted very soon. The soil, however, must be sufficient and loosened. Indication of careful watering