What do you do with holiday plants once the holidays are just a memory? Cyclamen: This seasonal favorite thrives and blooms indoors if kept evenly moist, but not soggy, in a cool spot with bright, but not direct, sunlight. Cyclamen need light fertilization when in bloom, but when they quit, stop feeding and decrease water until all the leaves die. Pull them off. Let the corm stay naked and dry for three months, then put the pot outside, probably coincidental with late spring and warm nights. Re-pot as new growth appears. Do not fertilize. Bring indoors before frost threatens. Then fertilize, which ought to stimulate new flowers. Rosemary, other herbs: These are marginal keepers. Most don’t do well long indoors unless you have great southern light with cool temperatures. If you want to try, let the soil dry between waterings and do not fertilize. Trim and pinch to keep bushy and, if they survive to spring, plant them outside. A warning: Once needles fall off rosemary, the party’s over. Toss it. Topiary ivy: These so quickly become liabilities that if ever there were an argument for artificial flowers, this is it. If the pot is small, the ivy will wear you out with watering. If the topiary is in perfect shape, it will wear you out with trimming. Enjoy, but when the leaves go brown and spider mites move in, throw it away. Orchids: Orchids bloom for a month or more and during this time need tepid water almost daily but must not be waterlogged. Fertilize at half-strength monthly in winter, more often in summer. If you were meant to be an orchid person, you will figure out how to grow them. If you were not, you will kill them. It’s proved true orchid after orchid. Poinsettias: The best tip to keeping these long-suffering plants from suffering is to remove the ribbon and foil wrap and place the pot on a saucer. They like water but won’t last long standing in water. Should you decide to keep the plant after the holidays, set it outdoors in its pot or in the ground in spring as night temperatures are in the 50s. Trim vigorously to keep it from becoming a shrub — its normal size. Pot up and bring indoors when nights drop below 50 degrees. To encourage the bracts, now all green, to re-color, keep the plant away from any artificial light. Evergreens: A perennial evergreen such as a pine or juniper kept indoors as a miniature Christmas tree cannot be expected to survive winter indoors, much less be planted outdoors later. It is likely to die from overstimulation without its normal winter dormancy. A few nonhardy evergreens, such as Norfolk pine and golden Monterey cypress, can be handled like houseplants. Many holiday plants should simply be discarded, including chrysanthemums, azaleas, hydrangeas, gloxinia, jasmine and paperwhites. A parade of home ideas For cable’s HGTV, the 114th Tournament of Roses parade offers a rare chance to grab viewers’ attention. It’s part of a New Year’s Day marathon on HGTV that also includes: Pre-parade: “The Making of the Rose Parade” airs at 7 a.m. and repeats at 10 a.m. Sandwiched between are two specials about the host city — “Homes of Pasadena” at 8 a.m. and “Gardens of Pasadena” at 9 a.m. The parade: Coverage is from 11 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. — commercial-free —but you can catch a rerun of the parade (this time with commercials) at 8 p.m. and 10:45 p.m. This year’s theme is “Children’s Wishes, Dreams and Imagination” with Bill Cosby, Fred Rogers and Art Linkletter as grand marshals. The parade also airs on NBC, ABC and CBS and includes some regional coverage. Post-parade: HGTV uses the time to emphasize shows that are new or different. They include: “Subterraneans,” which airs at 1 p.m. This looks at underground houses. At 2 p.m. “Ground Rules” previews. The show will debut this spring with neighbors competing to redesign and landscape their grounds in a limited time. At 2:30 p.m., “Designers’ Challenge” airs, and it features two newlywed couples with opposite goals. One couple wants to add a nursery to a two-bedroom, single-story home; the other plans to remodel their master bathroom for less than $25,000. At 3:30 p.m., “Design on a Dime” premieres. This show helps folks give an old room a new look for less than $1,000. “House Hunters” airs at 4 p.m. It follows different quests. A four-person family wants a house in San Francisco. A single artist wants a pre-Civil War townhouse in New Orleans’ French Quarter, and a soon-to-marry couple wants a Manhattan loft. One lucky viewer can win a chance to own a home in “Dream Home 2003,” which airs at 6 p.m. The 2,800-square-foot abode is in northwest Florida and includes a boathouse and a Doggy Dream House. The boat is included; the dog isn’t. Really good buys Good Housekeeping magazine has announced the seven winners of its eighth annual Good Buy Awards, ranging from an oven that chills food until cooking time to kids’ clothes that let stains roll right off. The products are judged on their ingenuity, value and exceptional performance. Details about them are in the January 2003 issue. Polara Refrigerated Range from Whirlpool. Electric oven-refrigerator combo allows cooks to refrigerate dinner during the day while they are working and begins baking at a set time to have the meal ready when they get home. Cost: $1,799 to $1,899. Band-Aid Brand Liquid Bandage from Johnson & Johnson. Cost: $7.99 for 10 applications. Kidproof from Healthtex. First stain-resistant fabric for children — many liquids, including juice, bead off without washing. Cost” $18 to $25. Beamer Home Video Station from Vialta: An easy-to-use picture phone. Just plug it into your home phone — no special wiring, no extra fees. Cost: $499 for two. Twist & Pour from Dutch Boy: Twist & Pour paint comes in a plastic gallon container with twist-on lids that keep paint fresh, so you can use it again and again. It also has a handle and pouring spout to reduce spills. Cost: $13 to $17. Cascade Plastic Booster from Procter & Gamble: A couple of tablespoons of this dishwasher cleaner will remove orange stains from containers and spatulas. Cost: $2.99. Lodge Logic from Lodge: Iron cookware that comes out of the box “seasoned” with the shiny black patina that normally takes years to develop. Cost: $11 to $69. — From staff and wire reports

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