Your garden

SPOTLIGHT ON

Some plants exert the same pull on their owners as rare stamps or vintage teapots – one is never enough.

You start out innocently with a single specimen and before you know it, you’re a collector.

Few plants are as easy to fall for as streptocarpus. These endearing pot plants look as glamorous as orchids but are easy to grow and will flower from now until the autumn.

You’ll instinctively want one in all the main colours – pink, white, blue, purple and mauve. And what about two-tone flowers or ruffled petals?

If you buy “tots” from a specialist nursery, plant them in three-inch pots filled with multi-purpose compost for their first season.

Don’t water little and often as that leads to rotting roots. Let the compost dry out before you water them and add a dash of liquid houseplant feed every couple of weeks.

Deadhead regularly and remove faded or discoloured outer leaves. When they start looking scruffy after two or three years it’s time to replace them.