For those of us living in the northern hemisphere, the Winter Solstice is around the corner. The days will start getting longer and the nights shorter.
Many of us gardeners haven’t finished “getting ready for winter” and there’s still much to be done. Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic affected many, especially in regard to getting gardening chores done.
At this time of the year many outdoor pots, urns, and containers are decorated with cuttings of red twig dogwoods, spike-edged holly leaves and clusters of colorful red berries. Indoors, however, poinsettias have been the traditional live-plant decoration.
But, as I like to say, there’s always something new to learn, which recently happened to me. While scrolling though some Facebook postings, I noticed a beautiful Christmas holiday decorative pot in which there was a red-flowered plant I did not recognize.
The noted landscape designer and garden/online television hostess Shirley Bovshow had authored the posting featuring one of her plants (see attached photo) and asking to see how many could identify it. Well, many could, and everyone loved it. Incidentally, sincere thanks to Shirley, who gave me permission to share her photo of a cyclamen with my readers.
On researching, I found out that I had discovered a substitute for poinsettias for indoor decorating during the Christmas holidays! The accolades for cyclamens were many. For instance: “The delicate, winged ‘butterfly’ flowers on their tall stems and the variegated gray-green leaves will decorate any windowsill beautifully.”
Cyclamens are tuberous perennials than can bloom for several months. As indoor plants, they can flower for at least eight weeks, and they have the potential to live for decades with proper care and without too much effort. With more than 20 species and many hybrids, cyclamen research will keep me busy for sure.
In the meantime, I will try harder not to neglect our indoor plants. And since there’s always something new to learn, I will peruse seed and plant catalogs as they arrive in the mail and look into upcoming horticultural lectures, whether they be online or in person.
Wishing everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year!
