HOLIDAY GIFTS FOR THE GREEN OF THUMB

by Peter W. Gribble

I readily admit to enjoying it. Each season when it came around, I volunteered to work in the retail department that specialized in it.

It’s the great festive season in all its diverse forms! Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Winter Solstice, Saturnalia, Create-Your-Own-Adventure, secular abstention or “Bah, humbug” avoidance – whatever suits your theology or world-view.

Competitive celebrations aside, most festivities share the lovely, heart-warming tradition of gift-giving. The question arises: what is an appropriate present for the gardener in your life?

No two alike, gardeners are an odd species with eccentric habits. Even if you think you know yours, research may still be key. Observing your gardener’s quirks and customs in the garden, their natural haunt and habitat will delineate what gift might be appreciated.

The first thought, of course, is plants. Though your choice should be based on what you see on their work desk, mantle, balcony, or in their yard. Some gardeners are easy. They will welcome any and every plant as if it is a large-eyed traumatized rescue puppy. Others are fastidious and will quickly inform you, “I only grow variegated ferns from the Arachniodes genus.” Seasonal at this time is the seemingly quick and easy choice – poinsettias but these will likely induce a wan and brittle smile from your gardener. (For my semi-reasoned rant against poinsettias, see the Pots and Plants column of December 2019.)

A plant gift can stimulate fresh, new interests. Years ago someone gave me the unusual Fenestraria aurantiaca or Baby Toes succulent. From the desert fringes in southern Africa, it has a three or four-sided translucent window at the top of each three-inch-long “toe” to allow sun to filter in if the rest of the plant is covered by sand. Mine has sat contentedly on a west-facing window sill for years and once a year puts out one or two white daisy-like flowers. The gift resulted in a state of permanent lookout for rare succulents.

Seeds, the second thought, may be stocking stuffers possessing the long-term promise of spring, and the mutual care in the nurture, harvest and bounty anticipated for a late summer dinner. A handpicked bouquet of home-grown flowers will grace the dining table and your friendship – all from a package of seeds.

Where seeds are concerned, consider your gardener’s acreage. Pumpkin, squash, and gourd seeds growing 20 to 30 feet long won’t do well on a nine-by-five balcony. To avoid the pitfalls of choice, the gift of a seed catalog – even a free one – will ease the dilemma. It’s the thought that counts, and paging through the catalog together is fun and exciting. Be careful though; the temptation to overbuy is powerful.

From t-shirts to sun hats and vegetable-themed earrings, there are many wearable gift ideas.

Gardenwear is another option. There are sunhats, caps, garden-themed T-shirts, blouses, scarves, socks, toques, balaclavas, mufflers and earrings. As for earrings, one woman I knew was a delight to buy for. Her collection of garden-themed earrings was impressive – you knew what was happening in her garden at any given time. “You’re harvesting your carrots!” I exclaimed when I saw orange carrots dangling from her lobes. She had every known garden fruit and vegetable – some not easily identifiable. In late winter, she wore several pairs in the form of tiny seed packages. Her friends had fun finding the odder ones. Her most elegant ones featured gardening tools in finely crafted silver.

Not everyone can wear earrings – at least not publically – and, of course, more practical gardenwear is available. Hardier gardeners will already have rain gear and rubber boots for inclement weather.

Tools are a possibility, though most gardeners already have more than they need. The longer they’ve gardened, the more they’ve accumulated. Trowels, forks, shovels, hoes, weeders, secateurs, pruners, stakes, soil testing kits clutter the gardening shed, garage, cupboard, or toolbox. I have several gardening gloves, mostly mismatched singles from separated pairs. Several rusting pruners keep them company, none of which I use but have nostalgic attachments to. The need for more than one of anything is paramount: while occasionally waylaying a tool (and finding it later), having backup keeps each gardening session going. That’s my excuse.

A novel gift might be a photo album for your gardener to insert all the plastic plant tags as a lasting record of the plants purchased and grown over the years. With best intentions, I started one and maintained it a few years. It proved unwieldy and the tags kept falling out. Because of this, the tags accumulated faster than they were filed and were sorted into several empty plastic pots for later categorization. By the end of year three, I gave up and the collections found their way into the plastic recycling bin. Your gardener may manage better than I did with an album of seed packages, dated with a summary of the successful or not-so-successful results. In the end, I found a gardening journal more instructive and informative. To each their own.

Finding a pot to match your gardener’s collection is tricky. Aside from the standard, everyday plastic pots, containers go through fashions. Designer pots, unless very popular, are available one season and gone the next. There was an attractive range of blue-grey and beigey-brown ceramic pots with gothic arches embossed around their sides. I coveted them but they were expensive. I bought five as I could afford them and hoped for the following year, but they never showed again.

Rare, collectible, and out-of-print gardening books are often available online … like this copy of *Manual of the Flowering Plants of California* by Willis Linn Jepson.

Scanning your gardener’s bookshelves, if they have one, helps. References are one of my pleasures. In a second-hand bookstore, a friend found me a hardcover copy of Manual of the Flowering Plants of California by Willis Linn Jepson published by the University of California Press (copyright 1925, renewed 1953, ninth edition.) It’s a detailed technical reference for what we may be growing a few years hence with global warming having its way with us. In those pages are plants we already have growing here. I don’t open it often but the book’s size, heft, and 1,238 pages support a sense of preparedness.

Since lockdown restrictions, jigsaw puzzles have soared in popularity Bookstores carry them, particularly during the holiday period. It’s strangely rare to find ones with gardening themes. I resign myself to purchasing book and/or cat-themed ones but have yet to start them. I find them as meditative as several hours of weeding – without stiffening back and joints. Ah, well, perhaps in January.

Also in bookstores are calendars, occasionally garden-related. I used to give the flower-themed page-a-day calendar to a talented florist. Unfortunately, the flower one was discontinued several years ago, but she is fond of cats so the cat page-a-day suffices.

Subscriptions are another idea. The arrival of an issue each month over the year reminds your gardener of you and your thoughtfulness.

You can open a savings account for you and your gardener to sock away funds for a tour of the great gardens of the world. To inspire you (or the armchair or impecunious gardener) there is the superbly written and illustrated Patrick Taylor’s Guide to Gardens of Britain & Ireland to get you started. Your gardener might also like The Oxford Companion to the Garden, which is also in paperback.

For the serious gardener a combine harvester may be the perfect gift — but challenging to wrap or get under the tree!

If your pockets are deeper and your gardener has landscaping duties, they need power tools such as lawnmowers, weed whackers, leaf blowers, electric pole pruners, motorized tillers, and backhoes. Anything larger than these is in its own category. Combine harvesters make wonderful presents but are hard to wrap.

Gift certificates are a last resort and somehow convey an air of defeat.

In the end, the simplest, easiest gift is what every gardener needs at some point during the gardening year – a bag of good dirt.

Be festive – slap a bow on it!

Merry, happy, joyous everything to everyone!