William Moss: With their bright colors and surreal blossoms, orchids have long been the holy grail of the house plants. Fortunately, many of the new verities are as easy to care for as they are beautiful, today we are discussing winter orchid care.

Now life for orchids is fairly easy, all they really need is a good half day of light. Even sitting on the desk, underneath for less sunlight, they'll be just fine. So don't worry about light for orchids. If you've got any sort of light, they'll be cool.

And speaking of cool, the easiest way to water orchids is with ice cubes, you simply place a couple of them on top and as they melt, they'll give the orchid all the water it needs. Now you do this every week and it will be perfectly fine. Orchids are drought-tolerant plants, so they not need much moisture.

As a matter of fact, the number one killer of orchids is over-watering, so stick to the two to three ice-cubes per week and you'll be fine. As far as maintenance, it couldn't be simpler. All you do is prune off any dying flowers or cut back a leaf that may be dying.

Now there is a big question people have some times about the roots. These roots are perfectly fine, you can let them grow anyway you want, but if you want to clip them off, just for aesthetics, it's very simple to do and wont hurt the plant.

Now once the flower stock stop blooming, don't be so hasty with the pruning yet, watch it, cut only what's brow and dead, because if you're lucky you'll get a whole new flush of blooms coming from the green stocks.

With these simple tips, you'll have weeks of your exquisite orchid blooms to take you through the winter doldrums. Get out and grow.