Seasonal Disposables

It was a few weeks before the holidays last December and I was standing in my upstate home getting ready to bring the Christmas tree in from the barn to its traditional dining room roost. The dining room windows look out to my front lawn and the side windows give a view of my long perennial island. But usually in December the view is either a monochrome white of snow cover or the dull drab of the browns of early winter. The Christmas tree certainly softens and livens things up and as my wife and in-laws add the tree decorations the front of the room fills with color. But something was missing. Live plants.The following week as we headed up for the weekend we passed through Newburgh and a spot where we often stop for groceries, Adams Fairacre Farms, or just “Adams” to the locals. It’s been a wonderful diversion for me over the years because attached to what I’d refer to as the grocery store is a greenhouse filled with tropical plants. The other temptation is the large attached nursery, where they sell annuals, perennials, trees and shrubs, and this place has become a stopping point where I buy plants and more plants that I have no room for, can’t afford and swore I wouldn’t buy.

But leading up to Christmas, the tropical greenhouse is filled with the plants of the season, much like many of our local garden centers from Moriches to East Hampton. There are poinsettias of every size, height, density and color. There are gardenias in bloom, amaryllis with bursting buds atop their tall stalks, orchids in bud as well as in bloom, and several other plants that are associated with the holiday season, including some forced into bloom, like miniature roses in 4- and 6-inch pots. I consider all of these, with the exception of the orchids, to be what I’ll call seasonal disposables—plants that are short-lived, forced to flower for the holidays, that soon die or decline as the winter proceeds.

But I found a gem—a plant that I had shunned for years as common and difficult, and much to my delight it was just what my dining room needed. It turned out to be anything but difficult, and it not only thrived for months and months but it seemed to thrive on near-neglect and flowered nearly endlessly.

The surprise plant is often referred to as the florist cyclamen, but its proper name is Cyclamen persicum, and while some believe it grows from a bulb, it actually grows from a specialized root called a corm. Native to Greece and Syria, it was once a very popular indoor plant and widely grown by greenhouses and nurseries, and sold when it was too cold to grow other indoor plants. One of its attributes is that it likes it cool. One of its detriments is that it hates it wet. Seems like a perfect plant for anyone who has a second home that they keep cool when they’re away and warm when they return. I bought a dozen of them and at about three bucks apiece in 4- and 6-inch pots they were really a steal.

With marbled, veined, heart-shaped green foliage and swirled flowers of pink, red and white, the plants are available as “standards” that grow from about 12 inches tall and wide to the dwarfs that are about 6 inches tall and wide. And if you’re looking for a plant to liven up a room, a table or a centerpiece, these are among the longest-blooming plants you can have indoors. They begin to bloom in late November, then go nonstop until June, when it gets warm and they go dormant. Most people will throw them away at that point, although it’s really quite easy to re-bloom them, but with the cost of new plants being so reasonable only the most devoted of us will go the re-blooming route. I do hear that some gardeners put the corms in outdoor gardens or pots in the summer, then bring them indoors when they begin to grow again early in the fall—so that’s also an option.

If you buy clean and healthy plants, there is little chance of disease or insect issues. If you are heavy on the water and stick them in a sunny hot window, you’ll certainly kill them. But if you keep them cool, even down to 50 degrees at night, and give them bright light without hours of full sun, they’ll continue to bloom and fill out. Old and faded blooms simply need to be pinched off, and if you are the type who likes to water on a schedule, then one watering a week will work just fine. I kept my plants on a foot-wide window bench that catches only late-afternoon sun in the winter and is otherwise “bright” but not sun-lit all day. When we leave on Sunday the curtains are drawn, and the temperature around the plants certainly drops to the lower 50s and upper 40s at night with no ill effect. When we return the following week they get watered, faded flowers removed—and that’s it. It wasn’t until late June when it began to get hot that they faded away … but oh what a treat to have such an easy and colorful plant for the holidays and six months after.

Another plant that I see often before the holidays is the kalanchoe. There is one called the Panda Plant, but the one we see at the holidays is blossfeldiana, with dense flower clusters of pink, red, yellow or orange. To be honest these are, at best, seasonal plants, and the great horticulturist Jim Crockett referred to them as “dispensables,” as they bloom for only about a month, then they’re done. Great for instant color, not expensive, but very short-lived.

One more plant that’s caught my attention among the holiday plants is the lemon cypress. I’ve seen this plant in 6-inch and larger pots and from 15 inches up to several feet tall. It’s native to California and known to be hardy to Zone 7, so let’s say it’s marginally hardy out here. But it does make a nice houseplant, can be moved outdoors from April to November and, yes, the evergreen foliage does have a pleasant lemon aroma. It looks particularly nice indoors around the holidays, adding a nice scent and touch of living greenery. Preferring plenty of light, this plant also prefers being kept on the dry side (think California) and takes well to light shaping. This plant also makes a nice gift.

So, three choices. One short-lived but easy and delightful. One very short-lived and very colorful. And a third offering scent and texture. Three choices for the holidays that might be overlooked. Keep growing.