If you can't see hidden files in proftpd (the files beginning with a dot, like .htaccess), you can enable the option in your client. However, you can force the files to be displayed in almost all clients with a server wide variable in your proftpd.conf:
ListOptions -a
Make sure to restart proftpd afterwards and re-connect to the FTP server to see the changes.

Thanks - this is exactly what i needed although every time there is an update I seem to have to change it again - is there a way to make this change permanent?
Thanks
@JBO - As far as I know, there is not a way. Plesk rewrites the proftpd.include file each time you make FTP adjustments and it puts a new proftpd.conf in place with each upgrade.
Dude!
Thanks. You win
This has been killing me for a few weeks now. I thought it was a problem with nautilus on my laptop. Turns out my server wasn't listing with the '-a' flag. I actually set mine to '-la'.
It is very usefull tip! It help me to configure my ftpserver, so clients can modyfy .htaccess