Plants that come to my house to live indoors quickly learn that they have to abide by the rules. The primary rule is: No fussing (leaf drop or wilting) about infrequent watering. Therefore, I have several Christmas cactus (that always bloom for Thanksgiving) and one Easter cactus (that blooms for Christmas).

I also have a multitude of Amaryllis thanks to gifts from friends. Many years ago, I despaired of ever having them rebloom. I followed the advice in the books, i.e. let them go dormant after they bloom.

It never worked and I usually threw them out, having decided that they were dead. Then, fortunately, I read a piece of advice that has made me an Amaryllis junkie. Keep them in bright light and feed them with a very low strength fertilizer every time I water (about once a week when I’m not overwhelmingly busy, about once every two weeks when I am). Consequently, they now bloom in February and again in late summer.

In December, I was the beneficiary of a new plant, given by a very good friend. She knows that I have a red-leafed Banana Plant (Ensete maurelii) in my garden that winters over in my basement and she decided that it should have a summer companion.

Lo and behold, I am now the proud owner of a Sago Palm (Cycas revoluta) that sits in a lovely blue ceramic pot. Strangely enough, the Sago Palm is not actually a palm but a cycad, a “living fossil”. What is important to me is its tolerance of drought and bright but indirect light. For now, it is living in my garden room that has window walls and a skylight but come Spring, guess where it will be?