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Are we becoming indifferent to taunts about being a 'throw away society'. "Not me" do I hear you cry? Lets face it we are all guilty to a greater or lesser degree BECAUSE it has become so 'normal'.

When plants are involved, I get quite shirty! Buy a plant in a pot for Christmas and when it has delighted us by flowering it's socks off for several weeks perhaps, it gets neglected, stood outside the back door to be frosted to death or worse still, thrown in a bucket marked 'land fill'!

Thousands of pounds will be spent this Christmas on living growing plants that are perennials and should be looked after to bloom again. I concede that some people may not have space to accommodate them whilst others may not know how. Let's start with flower bulbs.

When they have finished flowering, remove the dead flowers and move the plants from the limelight to a frost free environment with plenty light, apply a half strength liquid feed to encourage the plants to continue growing on for some weeks. In time, when conditions are suitable, they can be planted out in the garden. Having been pushed to flower out of season, they may take some time to revive and flower again but they surely will, best to plant them in a discreet part of the garden away from critical gaze.

Turning now to and all it's derivatives, they will flower for weeks and when the last flowers have faded and been removed, move the plants to a cool greenhouse in the short term for they are not fully hardy. Feeding with an ericaceous fertiliser will help the recovery and if there were any pruning to be done to tidy up the shape that would be the time to do it. Azaleas are usually pretty pot-bound and if you are serious about growing them on for another year, consider potting into a slightly bigger pot. How much bigger? When you stand the root-ball in the centre of the new pot, there should be a two finger wide gap between it and the pot wall! Remember to use a John Innes Ericaceous compost. The pots are best plunged out of doors for the summer, a little light shade is good but don't forget to water them!

The cyclamen is another seasonal favourite. Keep growing after the flowers have gone, feed from time to time and when the foliage starts to yellow, dry them off gradually and allow to rest for 2 to 3 months.

There are some lovely arrangements of live plant material combining mini-cyclamen, primroses, ivies and other foliage plants. When they have given they're all, separate out the plants, pot them up singly and grow on for further use.

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I have left the best to last - the . What a wonderful contribution they make to the Christmas scene. Just to confound all I have said till now - when they are done, put them on the compost heap! (also advocated by Bob Flowerdew in his recent blog post!)

Oh yes, they can be cut back and grow away successfully with the new growth appearing at the right time, put in the airing cupboard to create an extended night at the right time to produce the scarlet bracts BUT you won't be able to control the growth in order to produce neat well-balanced plants, you need a growth regulator for that and it is not available to amateur gardeners!

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