Year-round orchids

Despite their exotic appearance, orchids are easy-going houseplants. They are quite happy in indoor conditions and require little care for their spectacular displays.

You'll find popular moth orchids (Phalaenopsis) as well as Cymbidium and showy Miltonia in our garden centre. All have beautiful, long-lasting flowers in colours from white to butterscotch to magenta.

That first flush of flowers isn't the end of the story: given good conditions a second flowering should follow hot on the heels of the first.

In the wild, orchids grow halfway up rainforest trees, so reproduce their ideal warm, humid conditions in bright but not direct light. Too dry, or too hot, and they'll refuse to flower.

Water weekly, letting it drain completely and adding specialist orchid fertiliser once a fortnight.

Phalaenopsis re-flower from nodes on the flowering stem, so once the first flowers fade cut back to the topmost node, and keep doing this until you reach the bottom node when you can remove it altogether. Cut out Cymbidium and Miltonia flower spikes completely as soon as the flower dies back to encourage more flower spikes.

Please ask the staff in our Newcastle upon Tyne garden centre for more information about how to grow orchids and keep them at their best.