Cyclamen

My mil once gave me one in a pot. I kept it indoors for quite a while but then one year it started having babies so I potted a few and planted the original corm in the garden (Oxfordshire) where it did really well in a dryish, sheltered area.

Is it a small species cyclamen or one of the big ones?

If it's a species I'd keep it indoors during the winter and plant it outside in the spring. Don't overwater it.

Cyclamen do really well in a minimal amount of poor well drained soil, preferably with a gravel mulch. They laugh at drought, being natives of countries with hot dry summers..

What I have found with commercially grown species cyclamen is that sometimes they have been somehow brought on the flower profusely on the strength of a tiny corm. These never seem to do very well, they just die after a few months.

I have a cyclamen on my east facing kitchen window sill. It does very well in the house.
Water it from the bottom when it is dry.

Cyclamen and poinsettias - I can kill both in less than a week. It’s a bit of a family joke - I say it’s a gift!
Wouldn’t mind, but I like them.

I'm always puzzled by the 'water it from the bottom advice'. I suppose it's to prevent people overwatering and rotting the corm. But in the wild the rain which waters them comes from above...

I am a great lover of cyclamen especially white ones in the winter. I have several in my window box on the kitchen window sill outside. They will bloom for ages. Then die right back in the summer when the trick is not to dig them up and throw away by mistake.

I put all the corms in the summer in individual small pots with new compost and store them away in the garden until the next autumn/winter. And then pot them back up in tubs or window boxes. If I leave them in the earth in the garden they can get dug up by mistake.
You could pop it into a tub outside with other plants or keep indoors but in a not too hot room. So pretty.

There are different types of Cyclamen - some for indoors and some for the garden. If you have been given one in a pot the chances are it is for indoors. I love the outdoor ones and last year I bought some to brighten the garden. They looked wonderful for a short time but I think the endless rain rotted them. Not going to waste my money this year.

I would keep it inside but out of direct sunlight. If you keep it coolish it’s will flower for ages. You can plant it out in the spring if you wanted or keep it as an indoor plant. They are so pretty.

The pot says "Indoor or Outdoor" - it is in flower now.

So perhaps I will hang on to it indoors and then plant it out in one of my patio pots in the spring.

Thanks for all the advice.

I keep them indoors for a while and enjoy them, then plant them out in the garden. They seem to spread everywhere, grow happily in gravel, unexpected places and are a bright splash of colour in winter.

My hanging basket of white cyclamen from last year is looking great just now. If you put it out near the house ( to offer a little shelter from frost) you could keep it through the dormant months and put it out next winter in a pot or basket.