12 houseplants that bloom all year round, or almost all year round

The days are getting shorter, the Gendarme à Saint-Tropez reruns are over and the flowers on your Chinese Rose Hibiscus are getting scarcer. There's no doubt about it, summer is drawing to a close. If you'd like to extend the season and bring a little sunshine into your home, here's a selection of houseplants that bloom all year round, or almost.

Spathiphyllum wallisii is nicknamed moonflower because of the shape of its inflorescence: large, white, glazed spathes enclosing a yellowish spike where the flowers bloom. The bracts are renewed all year round, allowing you to have a flowering plant in your home from January to December.

Moon Flower is a suitable variety for beginners. It's easy to care for. It appreciates good light without direct sun and regular watering. If you want to stimulate flowering, give it fertilizer from March to October and cut back dry stems and faded flowers.

The shrimp plant is a relatively rare flowering plant. You won't find it in every garden center or collector's shop (yet). But if you do manage to get hold of a specimen, then you'll be able to admire its yellow and pink flower spikes all year round, resembling small crustaceans or Japanese koinobori.

Justicia brandegeeana grows to a height of two meters in the wild. In pots and indoors, the shrub rarely exceeds 60 centimetres. To maintain a compact habit, prune by half in spring. Don't be afraid to cut! This will not prevent it from flowering.

The African violet goes through two- to three-month flowering periods, with short rest periods (around three weeks). My grandmother had some and, whatever the season, whenever I visited her, her Saintpaulia were always in bloom. I was invariably greeted by little round flowers, purple, pink, white or even blue (and Pim's).

Having a blooming interior from New Year's Day to Christmas doesn't require much effort, thanks to Saintpaulia. Water when the soil surface is dry, using room-temperature water. Be careful not to wet the foliage during watering, and don't mist the plant: water damages the downy leaves.

In the wild, Cape primrose blooms from spring to autumn. But indoors and in pots, this perennial produces clusters of purple, white, pink or red flowers twelve months a year . With its supple stems, it looks great in hanging baskets.

Streptocarpus are easy-to-grow flowering plants. They like bright rooms with temperatures above 16°. Water yours when the substrate is three centimetres dry, and repot them every year in light, rich soil, such as leaf compost.

We often forget that cacti and succulents also flower. Such is the case with Kalanchoe blossfeldiana. In its natural environment, this fat plant blooms in winter or spring, when the days are short. But in pots and indoors, it blooms at any time. In fact, flowering plants are available in all seasons. Pink, red, orange, yellow or white, it's up to you to choose the color that best suits your decor.

Blossfeld's Kalanchoe blooms again without any intervention on your part. All it needs is a three- or four-week resting period. If you want to encourage it to bloom, place it in a less bright spot and immerse it in darkness for 12 to 14 hours a day. The plant will thrive in December and flower more quickly.

Anthurium andreanum and anthurium scherzerianum flower from October to March. However, indoors and with proper care, these varieties bloom several times a year. You'll enjoy a red, pink, orange or purple spathe and an upright inflorescence.

You don't need a green thumb to grow a flowering Anthurium. All you need to do is keep the soil moist and mist the foliage regularly. If the air in the room is too dry, place the pot on a saucer filled with wet clay balls. And for long, abundant flowering, add fertilizer to the watering in spring and summer.

Do we still need to introduce phalaenopsis hybrid, with its long stems and perfectly symmetrical flowers? Yes, just to let you know that it flowers twice, in spring and autumn. Flowering lasts two to four months and gives off a pleasant scent of lily of the valley or water lily.

The same flowering stem flowers twice. After the first flowering, cut off the flowering stem two eyes below the dried flowers and wait for the plant to recover. If this is the second bloom, the stem will not produce any further buds. Cut it flush. A new flowering spike will appear in the axil of the oldest leaf.

The Hybrid Cambria orchid blooms for an average of two months, at any time of the year. The plant bears up to 100 flowers on its flowering stems. Star-shaped, they are red, mauve, purple or yellow.

Unlike the phalænopsis orchid, Cambria does not rebloom on its old stems. You have to cut off the stem after flowering and wait until a pseudobulb develops a new shoot. But this is not enough. The Cambria orchid needs a temperature variation between day and night to make new flower buds. You can install your plant in an unheated, frost-free room (a veranda or greenhouse) and take it out to the garden in summer.

Guzmania is a member of the bromeliad family. It blooms only once and dies after giving birth to small white flowers, encircled by red or orange bracts. Fortunately, however, the flowering period, which often takes place in winter, lasts several months.

Once your Guzmania has faded, don't compost it straight away. The plant produces shoots at its base. When they have grown to a height of ten centimetres, replant them in a growing medium for epiphytic plants, such as orchid compost. You'll then have to wait a few years to see them bloom.

In our latitudes, impatiens are planted in the garden as annuals. But they can also be grown indoors in pots as perennials. They then flower almost all year round. Impatiens walleriana is a hybrid designed for long, abundant flowering. It is available in single or double flowers and in all colors. Can't decide between white, pink, purple or red? Choose a variety with two-tone flowers!

The more light your plant receives, the richer its bloom. Place your Impatiens behind a curtained window, away from draughts and radiators. If the flower buds fall off, you're either watering too much or not enough. In summer, the root ball should remain moist but not soaking wet. In winter, water only when the substrate is thoroughly dry.

Tillandsia cyanea starts flowering in autumn and finishes in spring. For almost nine months, this daughter of the air sports a curious pink bract, resembling a racket or fan, from which blue-purple flowers emerge.

Like many bromeliads, Tillandsia flowers only once. After flowering, the mother plant produces offshoots. After a year or two, when the plant dies, the offshoots are strong enough to be repotted. Tillandsia racket is epiphytic. It doesn't feed on its roots, but captures water with its leaves. Its care is different from that of other flowering plants. Instead of watering the substrate, spray the foliage with non-calcareous water. Add a foliar orchid fertilizer to stimulate growth and flowering.

Another Bromeliad that sacrifices its life to offer us colorful blooms! In this species, it's the red, orange and yellow bracts that stand out. The white flowers are rather insignificant. In the tropical forests of South America, Vriesea blooms in summer. But if you like it at home, it will flower all year round and for several months at a time.

After flowering, continue to care for your Vriesea by watering and misting it with non-calcareous water. This will produce offshoots which you can plant in the ground to renew the plant. Re-pot them in a mixture of orchid potting soil, flowering plant potting soil or green plant potting soil. To improve humidity without drowning the roots, place the pots on a dish filled with moist clay balls.