Cyclamen persicum is a popular cool season annual. It is known simply as cyclamen here because it is the only common cyclamen that is available. It might be known as florists’ cyclamen where other species are available. Red and white are the most popular colors because cyclamen are associated with Christmas. Cyclamen can alternatively bloom with various tints and shades of pink, salmon pink and purplish pink. Some bloom with two-toned color or picotee margins. Cyclamen really is a delightful perennial.
Yes, perennial. Like many garden annuals, cyclamen is actually a perennial. It can survive in the garden for many years. It merely goes dormant through warm summer weather, and then resumes growth as weather cools during autumn.
Not only is it a perennial, but it is an expensive perennial. It is too expensive to be so disposable. So-called ‘landscapers’ do not mind. Disposable annuals are lucrative for them. Besides, even where cyclamen can perform as a perennial, it is not colorful throughout the year, and even in season, it is not as colorful as it is for its first season away from the nursery that it originally grew in.
Other species of Cyclamen that are available within other regions are becoming available here as well. Their bloom is sparser, with only light pink or blushed white flowers. They are grown as perennial wildflowers that bloom for autumn or winter, when not much else blooms. Although not as garish as common florists’ cyclamen, they are appreciated for their perennial performance.
The few florists’ cyclamen that we install at work bloom somewhat reliably only until spring. Because they were grown within ideal greenhouse conditions, they do not adapt immediately to landscape conditions. By spring, many are already beginning to rot. Those that survive their summer dormancy may become perennial.
Tony Tomeo 
I had no idea that CA landscapers install florist Cyclamen in landscapes. How do you appreciate their intricate leaves or blooms? We grow them as houseplants here, but as you said, most consider them ‘disposable’ because it takes effort to keep them year to year. I’ve seen C. coum and c. hederifolium used as winter bedding plants at a garden I visited in October on the Oregon coast. They are supposed to naturalize here, with ants carrying their seeds around, but I’ve still not gotten a colony established. They remain small and subtle, but prettier than most other ground covers.
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I still like florists’ cyclamen, and we do ‘use’ some at work; but I resent their disposability. In the future, I may install some of the white cyclamen from work into my own garden, but let them survive as perennial. Cyclamen hederifolium is only beginning to become available here, and does naturalize where it gets water when it foliate in autumn or so. (Winter rain might be a bit late for them). Cyclamen coum remains rare, but may eventually become available like Cyclamen hederifolium is.
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Cyclamen are used as a bedding plant in landscapes here, too. As I recall, they’re usually installed in November or December, and bloom nicely until March, or maybe early April. I’ve not seen any yet this year, but it’s been quite warm, and the pansies are just being planted now.
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Pansies are not as annoying because they are much less expensive. They are priced as the annuals that they are. Besides, they are pretty. Cyclamen are ideally colorful for Christmas, and are just too expensive!
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