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Color My Bare Garden

© Keith Muraoka

OK, go ahead and admit that it wasn’t exactly a stellar day for you. It started off bad this morning when your fifth grader broke the news during breakfast that she forgot about her spelling homework. Then, got worse when you got home from taking her to school, sat down to relax, turned on Ricki Lake and found her interviewing your parents.

Time for a horticultural pick-me-up! Even when it’s cold outside, there’s a flower to brighten your outlook. So-called “instant” flower color is as near as your retail garden center. This time of year you can choose from potted cyclamen, pansies, violas, primroses, primula, cineraria, calendula, Iceland poppy and more.

Bet you didn’t know there was such a choice for winter color! Yes, we don’t just have to settle for impatiens, petunias, marigolds and geraniums in the summer. Thanks to our mild winter weather, there’s an abundance of bedding plant choices this time of year.

One of my favorites are potted cyclamen. Cyclamen are actually rooted tubers, meaning they are a type of bulb. This is both good news and bad news.

The bad news is that cyclamen costs more than regular bedding plants because they are not sold in six-packs. Four-inch potted cyclamen may run around $5 apiece, while 6-inch pots are even higher. The good news is that cyclamen will bloom from here until warm weather in the spring, and may even come back year after year.

One of the keys with cyclamen is to grow them in containers. That way, you can set the pots aside come spring and summer. I set mine on the neglected side of the house where I quickly forget about them all summer. This way I can be assured I won’t water them during warm weather, which can lead to rotted-out bulbs. Come next fall/winter, simply start watering them again and you’ll have a whole new season of blooms.

There are numerous varieties of cyclamen on the market. Goldsmith Seeds, the flower breeding company in Gilroy, offers a miniature series called “Miracle,” an intermediate size called “Laser” and a florist-quality variety called “Sierra.” Many cyclamen varieties have the benefit of being scented.

Primroses and primula (fairy primrose) are other great cold-weather bloomers. Primroses have crinkly, dark green foliage, with bright flowers that grow just above the foliage. Primula have larger, flat, medium green leaves, but bloom softer pastel-colored flowers that stand well above the foliage on slender, delicate stems. Both are available in inexpensive six-packs or already-blooming 4-inch pots. Primroses, like cyclamen, will often come back the following year, but are usually grown as annuals for one season.

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