AS Christmas approaches this is a season to give and receive.

House plants make ideal gifts and flowering hyacinths, daffodils and tulips, poinsettias, flowering cyclamen, azaleas and pot primulas will add colour and scent to the festive season.

House plants are readily available in many outlets. When bringing your new plants indoors, place them in a cool room with plenty of light.

Spray the plants regularly with tepid water and always water cyclamen from the bottom. If water is allowed to settle on top, the corms will rot.

Flowering houseplants will continue to flower over a long period provided the soil is kept moist and the room in which they are kept is cool and not hot and stuffy.

Work in the garden can be difficult with wet, windy, frosty weather. However, every effort should be made to tidy up the vegetable plot.

In the glasshouse care must be taken to prevent draughts. Replace any broken or cracked panes of glass.

During wet dull weather botrytis can be a horrible threat. If you get a chance on a day with a few hours of sunshine open the vents for an hour to get some fresh air in around the plants.

Mould

Check over the glasshouse plants and remove stems that have developed mould or rot.

During the winter months it is easy to think that the garden has gone dormant but even through the dullest months of the year quite a few shrubs will create a spectacular flowering display and become prominent garden features.

Viburnum Farreri will fill the garden with fragrance at this time of year, making a splendid shrub for the winter garden.

Their rose-tinted buds open to white blooms which appear in clusters on leafless branches and are freely produced from November through to spring.

Another excellent variety to look out for is Viburnum Bodnantense Dawn.