Caring for favourite plants

Humidity and indirect light help keep houseplants healthy

I LOVE houseplants, but prefer those with interesting leaves to exotic flowers. Having said that, I do have a Christmas cactus that is festooned with pink trumpet-shaped flowers each year, a little moth orchid coming into its second season of flowers and a pink-spathed anthurium.

The anthurium isn’t looking too happy so I’ve moved it into the bathroom, where there’s more humidity, in the hope it will perk up.

Houseplants are excellent gifts (as long as you know the recipient is a ‘planty’ person) and the most popular varieties to give as Christmas gifts are orchids, amaryllis bulbs, Christmas cacti, African violets and streptocarpus.

Christmas cacti (schlumbergera) are one of the most popular houseplants, and can live for years. They usually flower over the festive period and need a resting period either side.

Schlumbergeras are forest cacti, hailing from rainforests, so need humid conditions out of direct sunlight. Once they are in a place they like and have produced buds, leave them there as they don’t transport well and may lose their flowers in protest.

Water sparingly, as they dislike cold wet compost, and stand on damp pebbles to boost humidity.