We live in a well-insulated house that can get quite hot in summer. It’s also a bright house and I’m struggling to keep house plants alive. Are there any plants out there that would bring a bit of life and greenery to our home without drying up, or how can I best care for them? In other houses I had a fern and some orchids that survived despite periods of neglect. Deirdre Burke, Galway

Modern houses can be surprisingly challenging environments for indoor plants, many of which are rainforest species that do best in a warm but humid atmosphere out of direct sunlight. My advice is to concentrate on desert species whose native habitats in the wild are not dissimilar to what you can offer them in terms of low humidity, warm temperatures and bright sunlight. Many of these are fleshy succulents such as the jade plant (Crassula ovata); Aloe vera; different kinds of echeveria including E agavoides, E harmsii, and E secunda var. glauca; panda plant (Kalanchoe tomentosa); yucca (Y gigantea and Y aloifolia), hens and chickens (Sempervivum); Haworthia; Hoya; the pony tail palm or Beaucarnea recurvata (a succulent rather than a true palm); and many different kinds of cacti. Certain species of palms should also do well for you, including the sago palm (Cycas revoluta),

Also bear in mind that there are useful ways to increase the humidity of the immediate environment around indoor plants, allowing you to grow species that like a damper atmosphere. One simple one is to place the base of the pot on a shallow, waterproof tray filled with fine pea gravel, to which you should then add water to just below the finished level of the pebbles. As it gently evaporates, it naturally creates a humid atmosphere. All you have to do is make sure to keep it topped up. Regularly misting the foliage of humidity-loving indoor plants will also help to keep them happy.