Hi All!

I have a question about my cyclamen. Six months ago I moved to a place that had very little light, and my cyclamen responded by dropping all of it's leaves over a period of about five months. Since then, I stopped watering it, thinking it may need some dormant time after three and a half years of either growing or maintaining itself. Now, I am hoping the cooler weather, a new location and some light will bring it back. Am I right, or is my cyclamen a hopeless pot of dirt?

There are three areas where leaves have traditionally grown from, and they all feel solid-no moist rotting. It has been recieving smatterings of rain but I know they don't like to be soggy so I've been trying to keep it fairly dry while there's nothing going on up top. It's in a 12" clay pot that is shorter than the typical shape. I think when I potted it I was still naive and gave it about 1/3 sand for drainage, 4/6 garden soil from Mom's house and a couple handfuls of mostly finished compost. (I think it forgave me, at least until recently. No real bug problems either!). It is now outside on my porch-where the temps have been between 65 and 80 during the day and at least 40 at night.

Ok enough of my chatter... time for direct questions!

Is there hope?

How much water should it be getting? (I try to bottom water)

Are the temperatures appropriate? What is the lowest and highest it should see?

How soon should I expect to see some improvement?

Should I give it a dilute fertilizer?

Anything else???

Thank you all so much

Lexie