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<p>Cacti are gorgeous, low-maintenance plants for the indoor gardener, so show them off to the max grouped in&nbsp;attractive displays to enhance your home in %locations%.</p>

<p>A cactus garden makes the most of smaller specimens. Choose a selection of different shapes,sizes and&nbsp;colours from the wide range available in our garden centre, looking for contrasts: purple-tinged Euphorbia&nbsp;trigona &#39;Rubra&#39; sets off green columns of Haageocereus beautifully, while tall cacti have more impact when&nbsp;set against squat, sculptural barrel cacti. Broad leaved succulents like Aeoniums also look fabulous paired&nbsp;with spidery stems like those of the pencil cactus (Euphorbia tirucalli).</p>

<p>Wide, shallow bowls or boxes give most scope for letting loose your creativity. Paint trays in bright colours,&nbsp;Mexican style, and create natural-looking scenes by setting your groups of cacti among rocks, grit and sand&nbsp;to mimic a natural landscape.</p>

<p>Place your cactus garden where you can see it, on a windowsill or shelf at least a metre off the ground.&nbsp;You could even place it against a fabulous backdrop of a spectacular Arizona desert, or colourful abstract&nbsp;materials or textiles.</p>

<p>Please ask the staff in our %locations% garden centre for more information and advice about how to collect and display&nbsp;cacti so they look at their best.</p>

Colourful cacti

<p>Growing your houseplants in something as beautiful as they are is the perfect finishing touch to your display&nbsp;and shows them off at their very best.</p>

<p>Containers are often an afterthought but they can make or break a good display, and you&#39;ll find pots to set off&nbsp;colourful foliage or emphasise an architectural shape in our garden centre in %locations%.</p>

<p>Themed or matching containers right through the house give a sense of continuity. Warm textured terracotta&nbsp;gives a rustic look, while coloured ceramic tones in easily with your home decor. Metallic finishes lend&nbsp;modernist style while bamboo or wooden containers are suitably jungly for ferns, palms and bananas. If it&#39;s&nbsp;shabby-chic you like, paint wooden containers or salvage items from bric-a-brac stores.</p>

<p>The shape of your container should also complement the plant growing in it. Low growing, trailing plants like&nbsp;ivy look lovely cascading over a tall container; fountain-shaped plants are complemented by vase-shaped&nbsp;pots. For real wow factor pick out the colours of a plant&#39;s leaves or flowers in the colours of the container or&nbsp;choose complementary colours: white, for example, sets off darker greens and purples beautifully.</p>

<p>Please ask the staff in our %locations%&nbsp;garden centre for more information and advice about choosing the right containers&nbsp;for your plants.</p>

Cracking good containers

<p>There&#39;s nothing that gladdens the heart in the chilly depths of January quite as much as cheery spring bulbs,&nbsp;forced to flower ahead of time. Super-early hyacinths on a kitchen windowsill fill the house with winter scent,&nbsp;while paperwhite daffodils bring a delicate beauty to a Christmas scene.</p>

<p>Pots of forced bulbs make wonderful Christmas presents - you can buy prepared pre-chilled bulbs in our&nbsp;garden centre from autumn. Don&#39;t forget to treat yourself too!</p>

<p>Start in September, planting into bowls of bulb fibre or multipurpose compost, available in our garden centre in %locations%.&nbsp;Place the bulbs on compost in the bottom of the bowl so they&#39;re close, but not touching. Fill with more&nbsp;compost so that the tops of the bulbs are just showing.</p>

<p>Place your pot of bulbs in a dark, cool place - ideally, about 9&deg;C. Keep watered, and when shoots reach&nbsp;5cm long bring them out into a cool room to let the leaves green up. Finally, move to a warm windowsill&nbsp;to continue growing. Then all you have to do is clear a space among your Christmas decorations for their&nbsp;moment in the festive spotlight.</p>

<p>Please ask the staff in our %locations% garden centre for more information about forcing bulbs for early spring colour.</p>

Forcing the issue

<p>Green, leafy houseplants bring the outdoors indoors - and that means healthy living, too. The palms,&nbsp;dracaenas and ferns you&#39;ll find in our garden centre in %locations%&nbsp;are proven to reduce stress, remove pollutants from the&nbsp;air and increase oxygen levels.</p>

<p>Help them carry on the good work by creating the conditions they need to thrive. Most green houseplants&nbsp;prefer somewhere bright but out of direct sunlight, with steady temperatures and humid air.</p>

<p>Avoid putting houseplants by radiators or on windowsills where temperatures fall sharply on frosty nights. Try&nbsp;standing them on tables or stands, available in our garden centre, in a bright spot near a window.</p>

<p>Water sparingly, letting compost dry out between times, and mist leaves with a hand spray or stand plants in&nbsp;trays of damp gravel to raise humidity.</p>

<p>Add liquid feed every couple of weeks and wipe leaves with cotton wool soaked in tepid water to keep dust&nbsp;from blocking their pores. While you&#39;re at it, check for pests: fuzzy white tufts are a sign of mealybug, while&nbsp;red spider mite cause yellow mottling and fine webs. Spray with insecticidal soap to put things right again.</p>

<p>Please ask the staff in our %locations%&nbsp;garden centre for more information and advice about looking after your green&nbsp;houseplants.</p>

Indoor greenery

<p>Despite their exotic appearance, orchids are easy-going houseplants. They are quite happy in indoor&nbsp;conditions and require little care for their spectacular displays.</p>

<p>You&#39;ll find popular moth orchids (Phalaenopsis) as well as Cymbidium and showy Odontoglossum in our&nbsp;garden centre in %locations%. All have beautiful, long-lasting flowers in colours from white to butterscotch to magenta.</p>

<p>That first flush of flowers isn&#39;t the end of the story: given good conditions a second flowering should follow&nbsp;hot on the heels of the first.</p>

<p>In the wild, orchids grow halfway up rainforest trees, so reproduce their ideal warm, humid conditions in&nbsp;bright but not direct light. Too dry, or too hot, and they&#39;ll refuse to flower.</p>

<p>Water weekly, letting it drain completely and adding specialist orchid fertiliser, also available in our garden&nbsp;centre, once a fortnight.</p>

<p>Phalaenopsis reflower from nodes on the flowering stem, so once the first flowers fade cut back to the&nbsp;topmost node, and keep doing this until you reach the bottom node when you can remove it altogether. Cut&nbsp;out Cymbidium and Odontoglossum flower spikes completely as soon as the flower dies back to encourage&nbsp;more flower spikes.</p>

<p>Please ask the staff in our %locations%&nbsp;garden centre for more information about how to grow orchids and keep them at&nbsp;their best.</p>

Year-round orchids

<p>Create a garden inside your house with the lush greenery and flowers of houseplants, and you&#39;ll not only&nbsp;make your house look beautiful, you&#39;ll improve your quality of life. Research has shown that in an average&nbsp;room, just two or three houseplants picked from the range in our %locations%&nbsp;garden centre improve air quality, pump&nbsp;feel-good oxygen back into the air and reduce stress.</p>

<div>In our garden centre you&#39;ll find handsome architectural palms and ferns for a modern, minimalist look; or&nbsp;pretty African violets, delicate paperwhite daffodils and fragrant stephanotis if shabby chic is more your&nbsp;style.</div>

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<div>Pick out a good-looking container for your houseplants from the range in our garden centre to really show&nbsp;off their beauty: in the right setting, the impossibly exotic flowers of orchids or the strange, waxy bloom of an&nbsp;anthurium can stop you in your tracks.</div>

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<div>Houseplants like a bright spot out of direct sunlight and away from radiators. Mist regularly with water to keep&nbsp;humidity high - you&#39;ll find hand misters in our garden centre, along with liquid feed to keep them at their best&nbsp;all season long.</div>

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<div>Please ask the staff in our %locations%&nbsp;garden centre for more information and advice about our range of houseplants.</div>

Product range

Indoor Plants

Outdoor Plants

Outdoor Living