Choosing gifts for gardeners is easy
The winter holidays can be a fretful time, and the pressures of gift-giving often contribute considerable angst. If the folks on your list are gardeners, however, you can relax. Don’t, however, bestow plants: Longtime readers are aware of the perils of presenting plants as gifts unless they’re clearly intended to be disposed of following the holiday season.
What are the best gifts for gardeners? Books — because they can be focused on gardeners’ particular interests. The premier publisher of garden and outdoor-themed tomes is Timber Press, an American company with hundreds of richly illustrated titles in print. For advanced green-thumbers, books explaining how soil microbes affect plant growth and how nutrients work might be welcome.
Many Timber Press publications are specific to regions and to individual states, making their selections as gifts virtually foolproof. Gorgeous books exploring botanical art, medicinal plants and the life histories of the world’s oak species are also available for your favorite plant lover.
Gift giving is admittedly tricky when the recipients are children. Perhaps copying the method used by book and wine clubs would be effective with youngsters. Every month or two, they could open – hopefully with great anticipation – a carefully dated seed packet and sow — with help — seeds of vegetable, annual or perennial plants. From practically ephemeral vegetables like radishes, which can be harvested within weeks, to long-lived perennial herbs like rosemary, the possibilities are endless.
I would definitely include seeds of the sensitive plant (Mimosa piduca). When its ferny leaves are tapped, they magically fold up to delight kids of all ages. This Tropical American novelty plant can be set in a sunny window indoors or be planted in the landscape, where it will grow up to 5 feet tall and display small, pink blossoms. Other options for kids include garden togs such as boots and hats, as well as appropriately sized tools, including shovels, rakes and trowels.
An awesome gift for children at least 4 years old is the Root Vue Farm, a slightly more sophisticated version of kits that have been around for many years. This incarnation includes a growing/viewing box with a see-through side, soil mix and seeds of radishes, onions and carrots. Observing the sequence of seed germination, root development and top growth is fascinating, and it progresses so rapidly that kids never get bored. Finally, when harvest time arrives, the proud youngsters can eat their bounty.
Charles Reynolds, a Winter Haven resident, has an associate’s degree in horticulture and is a member of Garden Writers Association of America. He can be reached at ballroom16@aol. com
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: CLIPPINGS
