Gourmet Collection serves up a selection of favourite kitchen House Plants:

Many hours are spent cooking, eating, washing dishes or chatting and drinking coffee, so it's vital that your kitn is a bright, erful and welcoming place. What better than housepts to soften the clinical appearance of stainless steel sinks and ceramic tiles or to blend with the warming colour of wood veneer?

As space on work surfaces is usuy limited, choose sm or compact, bushy pts displayed on windowss, shelves, in w containers or on tables, leaving larger specimens to stand on the floor in corners if space is available.

Don't put pts where they w obstruct walkways between work areas, as you w be likely to trip or knock them over. If you have a sm kitn, why not have a hanging basket above the sink to take advantage of the humidity created w washing up?

Pts like tradescanthias, asparagus fern, chlorophytum comosum and creeping fig (ficus pumila) w thrive. Growing conditions can vary, speciy in a large kitn where light, temperature and humidity change as a result of the days activities above the sink or near the cooker and kettle, steam makes the air warm and humid like in a rain forest.

The oven, toaster or gr, its like the hot, dry air of a desert but open an outside door or window to let out the steam and the draught is like the wind over the tundra! Because conditions are far from ideal, grow tough, tolerant pts which are ap and easy to replace, rather than risk delicate exotics.

Ivies and tradescanthias provide -year-round foliage interest but avoid putting trailing pts on the top of cabinets where they interfere with the cupboard doors. A range of impatiens, pelargoniums, hibiscus rosa-sinensis or cyclamen can by introduced for a temporary splash of colour and if there is enough space, variegated specimen pts like weeping fig (Ficus benjamina).

Chinese evergreen or devil's ivy brighten up darken corners. Fortunately for us, w grown as a housept, devil's ivy is less exuberant; we only see it in its juvenile condition, at the most 9ft. t, with sm-variegated leaves.

In the kitn, it should be trained up a moss pole for best effect. The kitn window is the perfect place for any sickly pt which requires emergency attention. W micals are being used to treat those with pests and disease, any spraying should take place elsewhere because of the presence of food.

Kitn space can also be used to grow your own herbs. Frost tender basil given plenty of light but cool conditions w thrive. Mint, chives, parsley and thyme w grow but w need replacing regularly as they dislike the constant and rapid changes of temperature in the kitn environment.