QUESTION: I would like to give a gardening friend a blooming houseplant for Christmas, and thought an orchid might be a good choice. Do you have any advice?

ANSWER: My advice is to reconsider, unless your friend has written to Santa with a specific request. Please reflect on the merits of fine hand tools, garden books and high-end chocolate. Most people who enjoy houseplants already have too many.

Popular orchids like phalaenopsis, paphiopedilum and oncidium certainly attract the eye. But once you look past the bling-bling, you will see that those gorgeous flowers are growing on extremely ungorgeous plants. If you give one, it should be with the understanding that it may be discarded after it blooms.

Unfortunately, many gardeners cannot deliberately kill plants. For them, consider jewel orchids. The beauty part is their broad leaves, stitched with glittering veins.

The best known and easiest to grow is the dark maroon-tinged Ludisia (or Haemaria) discolor, but the gold-on-green Macodes petala is just as beautiful, and similarly willing.

QUESTION: The growth on one half of my Christmas cactus has been slowly turning purple ever since last summer, and that side does not have many flower buds. What's wrong?ANSWER: Purple foliage and scant flowers are signs of phosphorus deficiency, but the half-plant part suggests the problem is in the cactus, not in the soil. Something is preventing the purple section from absorbing nutrients.Examine the bases of affected branches and remove any that look withered or have signs of disease. If all looks well, check below the soil for root rot. If the mystery remains, try a high phosphorus fertilizer. The label will have a high middle number (i.e., 10-30-10).Address questions to Garden Q&A, The New York Times, 229 W. 43rd St., New York, N.Y., 10036, or by e-mail to gardening(at)nytimes.com. Those of general interest will be published. Unpublished questions cannot be answered individually.By N.Y. Times Service