My friends know I’m a crazy old cat lady in the making but I’m also one of those people who fret over who’ll water their plants when they’re away from home for extended periods…

Cyclamens are one of my favourite flowers, I fell in love with them at first sight in 2005 and have had several of the beautiful pot plants since then. Currently I have 3 adult plants and, for the first time ever, my plants bore seeds at the end of 2012. With the help of the internet I managed to grow them into baby cyclamens.

I love plants, and if I didn’t have such black thumbs and was more scientifically inclined I like to think I may have become a botanist in another life. But alas, more often than not the most I can do is just admire them…so I was feeling pretty nervous about trying to grow the precious seeds of my beautiful plants. Luckily for me, the internet is full of great resources, including these:

• http://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/projects/seeds-and-bulbs/how-to-sow-cyclamen-seeds/97.html
  
• http://www.ext.nodak.edu/extnews/hortiscope/flowers/cyclamen.htm
• http://www.hortmag.com/archive/growing_hardy_cyclamen_from_seed

I mostly followed the instructions of that first link – I took all the seeds out of their cases, and soaked them in water overnight. Then planted them shallowly in a pot, wet the soil and kept it in a dark shady place.

I checked on it occasionally and watered it occasionally and just as I started forgetting about it I noticed tiny little seedlings popping out of the soil. I took the pot out to get some light, kept the plants watered and slowly but surely they started to grow.

First they each put up a single green leaf, then came smaller versions of the variegated leaves of the adult plants. Now, just over a year from when they were planted, one of the baby plants has now bloomed, and I feel like a proud parent :)

Cyclamens are awesome, everyone should have one ❤