I'd recommend either a plunge, or keeping the pots in full shade. Sylvia doesn't say whether the pots are plastic or pottery. My cyclamen species that are not in the ground are in clay pots kept under my shaded plant stands in summer, where a little water drips onto them so they are humid, if not wet. In the Bay Area no species should need winter protection; I keep C. rohlfsianum and C. creticum indoors under lights in winter here in Portland, Oregon (colder than where Paul lives), and C. rhodense is in a raised bed in the unheated bulb house. All the others are outdoors all the time (I don't have C. libanoticum, C. persicum, or C. balearicum, also rather tender). I don't think any species needs to be completely dry in summer; indeed, there's a volunteer C. graecum in a heavily watered perennial bed of very organic soil, and it flowered this year too. Jane McGary, Portland, Oregon, USA On 6/27/2018 4:34 PM, Paul wrote: > I maintain many Cyclamen in pots five miles from the ocean near Brookings OR. After killing many seedlings from over drying, I now keep my pots in a sand plunge and water the sand over the summer. Cyclamen seem best served in as small a pot as possible, but I discovered that if the roots desiccate too much the plant is doomed. > > Paul Otto > Brookings Or ( where the rain is absent from June to September) > > Sent from my iPad > >> On Jun 27, 2018, at 4:00 PM, Sylvia Sykora <slsykora@sbcglobal.net> wrote: >> >> I’d be grateful for suggestions from those who grow Cyclamen in pots in Northern California (Bay Area) or elsewhere with a similar lengthy summer drought some heat, some abundant fog. C. hederifolium and C. coum seem to take care of themselves in the ground even with summer water (the former beginning to bloom this week before all the leaves have died down). But small pots of other species baffle me. Do I keep them shaded and dry all summer? Dry but in the sun? Can they take our sometimes abundant fog drip from June through August? Do they need a sand plunge bed? And why did C. cilicium put out fresh leaves and a few blooms two weeks ago? As the kids say, “So, what’s going on?” In past years I’ve left the pots out on plant stands, moving them out of fierce sun during heat waves and letting them take what fog drip blows in from the ocean. I’m keeping seedlings in their first and second year watered through our summer. Any ideas that might work for a collection of small pots of these lovelies would be welcomed. >> >> Thank you. >> >> Sylvia Sykora >> Oakland, CA >> _______________________________________________ >> pbs mailing list >> pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net >> http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…