For over 30 years I’ve written about the first faint spring fever twinges February brings to gardeners as well as our need to pamper indoor plants.

I began this column during the energy crisis in the early 1980s. People were flooding the phone lines at the Conservation Library where I worked with questions about how to conserve energy.

Drawing on my experience with shelter belts during years in farming and ranching communities, I wrote my first column on how to use landscaping to our energy advantage.

Paul Kashmann’s benign guidance quickly led to the column’s present format, which you, loyal readers, kept alive.

Gardening and landscaping interests have changed dramatically over the years. No longer do we have vast expanses of chemically-poisoned green lawns flooded by flat-rate watering bills. Environmental consciousness now encompasses landscapes, food, bees, etc. More people are raising their own food than at any time since World War II, and lifelong gardeners are being created and nourished in school programs that begin as early as preschool.

Your questions have grown more sophisticated, revealing your own evolution and consciousness, but our challenging soil, weather and climate change still can make amateurs of us all – and that is the lively challenge of gardening. But, I digress. I always say that there is constant movement in seasonal cycles, and we all have rather sad indoor plants just gasping for some real care so they can truly respond to February’s added daylight, so let’s focus on a few.

Q. In my December doldrums I purchased several cheerful cyclamens of various sizes. They bloomed happily in a room with northeast exposure but all but one have ceased blooming. Will they bloom again, or do I now just have green plants?

A. Nothing wrong with green plants, but your cyclamen are probably finished blooming for now. Let your plants rest in a cool light place. Water less often by setting the plant in a saucer filled with pebbles and watering that, never the top of the plant. You don’t want to rot the corm. By the end of March, you should lightly fertilize the plants with a liquid fertilizer. If you like, you also may plant your cyclamen outdoors in a cool, sheltered or shady area. Don’t forget to bring them in before frost.

Q. Someone gave my young daughter a tillandsia in a glass bowl and was told it was the perfect indoor plant because it could tolerate our dry houses and needed no care. I think it needs some care, but what? There’s no soil to water.

A. Part of the advice is correct, but everything requires some care, even plants that are not rooted in soil. In the tropics these plants from the bromeliad family attach themselves to treetops. There they receive their nutrients from the ever-present moisture in the air. To mimic that environment just MIST the plant thoroughly twice a week. Don’t soak – over-watering is fatal. If the leaves seem to be curling, mist more often. You might also like to visit the Denver Botanic Gardens and view their many varieties of bromeliads and see how they treat and attach their tillandsias. Then check neighborhood nurseries to buy a few more of varied colors to keep yours company.

Q. I love amaryllis flowers, but I rarely can get them to bloom. Yet, every year I hopefully buy another kit, but get the same results – greenery, but no flowers.

A. Amaryllis do indeed produce glorious exotic flowers, but you need to begin with large high quality bulbs with a strong viable root system. These are expensive and are best purchased from a nursery.

The problem with the inexpensive boxed bulbs is that bulbs often are small and of inferior quality or the roots have dried. At home the plants require consistently warm temperatures to mature.

Good bulbs planted outdoors in rich soil in the summer will re-bloom indoors the following winter. Good luck.

I don’t know the future of this column – it will depend on the new folks and you. It’s been a pleasure to be able to indulge in my lifelong passions for plants and for scribbling. In the meantime, it’s February, the month of love and time to love your indoor plants. Then be alert for the first golden crocus, a true harbinger of spring.

To a sunny February.