YOUR GARDEN, WITH BOB JAMES: There was a time when a well-grown hippeastrum might throw two flowers on the same stem. When, occasionally, a bulb actually produced two stems, the strange happening often prompted a letter to the gardening page.

Nowadays, such a feat might be regarded as a failure. There are bulbs available which may be relied on to produce not two stems but three or even four, and each of them may have three, four, or even five gigantic blooms.

The windowsill plant designed to brighten up the dark days of winter now seems to need a room of its own to accommodate the dazzling display. Certainly the average windowsill is too small!

The bulbs are being heavily advertised now, some of them having been given the pre-cooled treatment designed to have them in bloom at Christmas.

They may, of course, be labelled with the name amaryllis which, although incorrect, is so widely used that it must now be quite acceptable.

Those of us who refer to geraniums when we mean pelargoniums can hardly complain!

Literally millions of the huge and quite expensive bulbs are planted each year and more and more new hybrids are being produced to meet the demand. That's where all the bigger, brighter, and better bulbs are coming from.

Once, the hippeastrum was regarded as being quite difficult to grow, but the new hybrids are almost foolproof.

There's great satisfaction in growing them on from year to year, the display becoming bigger and bigger as the bulbs themselves increase in size.

There is enormous variety in the colours available. Space doesn't permit me to give a guide to all the hybrids available, but you can have just about anything you want from white to the darkest red and a good many that are bicoloured, some in stripes

The bigger the bulb at the outset the better. What may be regarded as a 'big' bulb is, of course, relative, but you should look for something more like a miniature football than the usual run of winter bulbs. The really big bulbs will have a circumference of around 34cms and that's well over a foot in old money!

The bulb will be happiest in a pot that's not too large, perhaps about half as big again as the bulb, and has good drainage.

If the branching roots on the bulb have become dried up in appearance it is advisable to soak them and the lower part of the bulb in tepid water for 24 hours before potting up in good compost.

John Innes No. 2 is ideal, and the bulb should sit proudly with the top third or slightly more standing above the surface where it can get light and air.

The best way to stimulate growth is to place the pots in a shallow dish filled afterwards to about half its depth in tepid water before placing it above a covered radiator or in a south-facing window, where a temperature of around 70F can be maintained.

Add water to the dish sparingly, enough to keep the compost moist, and ensure that the pot remains in daylight and out of draughts. Once growth begins, the water supply can be increased, adding always to the dish rather than the pot.

In their natural habitat in South America, the hippeastrums have no dormant period, and so the big Dutch hybrids so popular will remain in leaf all the year around if kept moist, losing and replacing a leaf at a time.

To encourage flowering, the plants should be kept in good light so that the leaves grow well. The aim is to get floral stems after every fourth leaf.

The hippeastrum rather likes being potbound and transplanting every four or five years is often enough.