The showstopping alternative to the Christmas poinsettia

Are you ready to try an alternative to your difficult poinsettia, which so often seems to wilt when you get it through the front door? Make way for the hip-peastrum, also known as amaryllis, the giant bulb which produces an array of mammoth flowers.

- Hannah Stephenson, The Independent

You can use these huge beauties to decorate your Christmas table, spark festive conversation in your living room and provide a bounty of colour — in every shade from red to pink and white — in your kitchen. They are easier to maintain than poinsettias, says Claire Bishop, senior plant buyer for Dobbies Garden Centres.

“Poinsettias are the absolute divas of the houseplant world. It’s like Goldilocks, ‘It’s too hot, it’s too cold, I'm going to drop all the leaves, I'm not happy’. “In the right spot, a poinsettia is fabulous but you almost know you're just going to have it for Christmas and if you have a draughty house or are going to be moving it about, it’s not going to enjoy that at all.” If you didn’t have time to plant the hippeastrum bulbs yourself in October or November in time for Christmas, you can buy them in a pot, ready to reach their full glory over the festive season.

‘And if you receive one on Christmas Day as a gift, it should be in flower in about six weeks’ time, Bishop says. “They are a stereotypical Christmas plant, however, I think people aren't quite sure what to do with them,” she says. “A lot are bought in little boxes but you can almost choose when it flowers and it will flower a lot over the period, so it’s a beautiful centrepiece.”