Gardening: Novices and pros alike will enjoy these garden-related gifts
Christmas is just seven days away and I still don’t have my shopping completed. If you are like me and are still seeking that perfect holiday gift for someone on your list, why not treat him or her to a gardening-related gift? Garden-related gifts will be appreciated by experienced gardeners, novice gardeners, and even those lacking the requisite green thumb. Inexpensive garden-related gifts also make perfect hostess gifts and appreciation gifts for teachers and service providers. Here are some ideas for useful and fun gardening gifts this holiday season.
Give a plant
Receiving a live plant is a special treat during the winter. Traditional holiday plants such as poinsettia, amaryllis, Christmas cacti, and paper whites are always appropriate and serve as beautiful live holiday décor for the gift recipient. Other flowering plants such as red or white cyclamen make festive holiday gifts, and tropical houseplants and succulents make excellent gifts no matter the holiday or season. Unique plant gift options include terrariums, air plants, orchids and small indoor aquatic gardens. For those unable or unwilling to commit to plant care, cut flowers mixed with seasonal greens are always a welcome gift.
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Garden bling
There are many unique gifts with a gardening theme available in gift shops and online, such as jewelry items including rings, bracelets, earrings, necklaces and even charm bracelets with whimsical charms in the shapes of trowels, plants, watering cans and other garden tools. Gardening-themed apparel such as gardening aprons, hats, shirts and garden boots make great gifts for the garden fashionistas in your life.
Decorative pots
An incredible variety of decorative pots in a wide range of styles and materials are currently on the market for both outdoor and indoor use. Resourceful shoppers may even find deep discounts right now on outdoor pots that retailers hope to clear from their inventories before year’s end. Whichever style of pot you choose, be sure that it contains a drainage hole near the bottom of the pot. A hand-decorated pot makes a fun holiday craft project for kids and a cute gift for grandparents.
Stuff the stockings
Seed packets make great stocking stuffers, and gardening gloves and hand tools will fit nicely into a stocking. Most gardeners can use an extra set of pruning shears, and gardeners can never have too many hand trowels! Gardeners love to get their hands dirty, so how about adding a high-quality hand soap, some soothing salve, or hand cream to your favorite gardener’s stocking? Other practical gardening gifts, which fit into a stocking, include plant stakes, tags and ties, as well as gardening-related magazines.
Books
Gardening-related books and subscriptions to gardening magazines will be welcome gifts for gardeners counting down the winter days until they can get back outside and dig in the soil. For many gardeners, the next best thing to getting their hands into the soil is curling up in a comfortable chair reading about new ways to get their hands into the soil.
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A gift for the birds
Gardeners understand the benefits of attracting wildlife and beneficial insects to their gardens and home landscapes, and birdhouses and feeders, bee hotels, bat houses, and butterfly homes will make perfect gifts for the environmentally conscious gardener on your list.
Garden art
Bring the bling to the garden or home landscape with yard ornaments made of glass, metal, pottery or other materials. Larger more elaborate gift options include birdbaths, fountains and garden statuary.
Give an experience
Memberships or admission tickets to public gardens, arboreta and gardening events make excellent holiday gifts for gardeners. Local options include Franklin Park Conservatory, Chadwick Arboretum on the OSU Campus, and Dawes Arboretum near Newark.
For the tourist gardeners on your list, other Ohio options include The Cleveland Botanical Garden, Holden Arboretum in Kirtland, Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens in Akron, Kingwood Center Gardens in Mansfield, and Krohn Conservatory in Cincinnati.
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Lend a hand
For seniors and other gardeners who may need some assistance with larger gardening or home landscape maintenance tasks, consider a gift card from a nursery or landscape company for professional landscape maintenance or improvements. You might also choose to give the gift of your labor to assist a gardener with gardening or landscape tasks next season.
No matter which type of gardening gift you choose to give, it is sure to bring holiday joy to the recipient and continued enjoyment throughout the gardening season for years to come.
Mike Hogan is an extension educator, Agriculture and Natural Resources, and associate professor with Ohio State University Extension.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Gardening related gift ideas include plants, seeds, tools and pots
