Colourful winter houseplants

Hyacinths

The blooms of this plant are guaranteed to fill your house with their strong floral perfume and gorgeous colour. Place a bowl of these bulbs in a cool but bright spot and they'll easily scent an entire room. Plant the bulbs in the garden after flowering and you can continue to enjoy their display year after year. Read more about hyacinths.

Cyclamen

This delicate plant is perfect for any cool windowsill. As it grows from a corm, it's best to place the plant on a saucer and water from underneath rather than directly onto the plant. This avoids rotting the corm. Remove any spent blooms and it will continue to flower through the winter. The blooms of this plant are guaranteed to fill your house with their strong perfume. Read more about cyclamen.

Azalea

Usually produces bright pink and purple flowers. Keep deadheading it and it should flower for about six weeks. A good plant for a cool room. Water sparingly with lime-free water (rainwater is best) and occasionally feed with cold, black tea. Avoid placing next to radiators as this will dry out the foliage and may kill the plant.

Cymbidium

Add a touch of the exotic to your house with this winter-flowering orchid. Originating from Asia, the long stems carry impressive, tropical-looking flowers. Although it's a houseplant, it does need a spell outside in the summer in order to stimulate it to flower in the winter months. It requires a bright but slightly cooler area of the house. Read more about cymbidium orchids.

Christmas cactus

The schlumbergera (Christmas cactus) is a Christmas-flowering succulent that survives well in centrally-heated homes. The plant is low maintenance and not expensive. It requires less light than most people think. To flower successfully it should ideally have eight hours of light and 16 of dark. It's one of the few succulents that benefits from being misted from time to time.

Poinsettia

This is the UK's best selling house plant for Christmas - not bad considering it's technically classed as a Mexican weed. The trademark bright red colouring is not, in fact the flower, but the leaf-like bracts. Poinsettias can also come in pink and white variations. When buying a plant, try to find one that's not packed tightly in its cellophane wrapper and has not been left outside for too long (for example, on a garage forecourt). Avoid buying one with green edges on the bracts because this is a sign that the plant was packaged before it had matured. Read more about poinsettia or take up the One Show's challenge to get your plant to bloom again.