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Many houses today have a built-on sun lounge or conservatory, which offers a very satisfactory home for orchids. Often these areas contain garden furniture, and the main idea is to provide a place to relax that catches the sun’s warmth on those days when it is too cold to sit outside.

An area for orchids can be created in the same way that space is provided to grow them indoors, except that here there is more room, and particularly more headroom, which means that larger orchids such as cymbidiums can be grown.

These sterile rooms will not provide the stimulating conditions in which orchids grow. The bathroom is often considered an ideal place because of the steam created when the bath or shower is running. However, this creates rapid changes in temperature and humidity, which plants can find hard to tolerate.

Orchids placed on the floor would need to stand on concrete or tiles, which can be wetted without harming any installations, and some means of channelling away surplus water would need to be set up.

Orchids growing in humidity trays will need to be removed for watering. The best place to water the plants is on the kitchen draining board or in the sink. Because of the nature of orchid compost (growing medium), a lot of water has to be used at one time, and unless a system of catching the water and channelling it into a container is installed, which is almost impossible indoors, the plants are better taken to a watering place.

Wherever there is sufficient light and warmth, orchids will grow, provided a suitable growing area is set aside for them. Cellar culture is practised in countries such as Canada, where excessively cold winters prevent the use of greenhouses.

An alternative idea to growing on the windowsill is the growing cart on wheels. Growing carts are available from most garden centres and are designed for indoor plants. They have the advantage in that the plants can be wheeled to a light position close to the window during the day and moved back at night. It also makes the chore of taking plants out for watering much easier.

Some orchid plants can become top heavy, particularly when they have outgrown their pots and are in need of repotting, and these are best handled singly rather than risk their falling over while being moved in the cart. A freestanding coffee-type table situated in front of a window can be used in the same way, without the need for installing a wider shelf.