Succulent houseplant delivers indoor color

Kalanchoe is a succulent houseplant grown for its small bright flowers. Native to Madagascar, it can be commercially grown so it flowers in the colder months.

The flowers may be yellow, orange, pink, red or white. A kalanchoe will bloom for a long time, especially if you purchase a plant when it has several buds but few flowers have opened yet.

These plants prefer bright light, sparse watering and no fertilizer while in bloom. They are succulents, like cactuses, so they should never be overwatered and there is no need to provide extra humidity.

If you want to try to encourage your kalanchoe to flower again next winter, cut off the flower stalks when all the flowers have dried. Move the plant to a shadier window and reduce watering to force it into a dormant period. When new buds appear, in one to two months, move the plant back into bright light, resume watering and fertilize twice a month with a dilute balanced fertilizer.

In early summer, move the plant outside to a part-sun location. Bring it back inside as night temperatures begin to drop below 40 degrees. If the plant needs to be repotted, use a cactus mix that has excellent drainage.

If you have a fireplace, keep firewood outside until you are ready to burn it, as insects can come in with the logs. Never treat firewood with insecticides.

Do not transport any ash wood outside of the emerald ash borer quarantine zone to avoid further spreading this harmful insect. Eggs and larvae can be transported in firewood. The federal quarantine zone includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Iowa, Missouri and southern Wisconsin, as well as states further east and south.

Use properly seasoned wood that has been allowed to dry at least a year. It will produce the most heat and the least amount of creosote, a waste product that can build up in the chimney and create a fire hazard.

• Tim Johnson is director of horticulture at Chicago Botanic Garden, chicagobotanic.org.