Gardeners never have enough. Which, usefully, makes them rather easy to get presents for: there’s always another plant, garden book, bit of kit, nice seeds or new tool that will make them happy.
If you know a green-fingered soul with a birthday or special occasion coming up, have you got the gift guide for you. We've rounded up some suggestions for every price range, whether you're looking to make a small purchase or treat them to something extravagant.
It’s less challenging than you think to buy plants online: hellebores, fragrant box, witch-hazel and clematis are all lovely. Just make sure the recipient has room before ordering larger plants, like trees.
As ever, just put an enormous ribbon around the pot or ornaments in the branches, swathe in tissue paper, and make sure to keep a label showing what it looks like in bloom.
We've sorted through the hundreds of options and ideas around to create a list to inspire your purchases.
Shop now
Cotswold Company Small Antique Wash Deluxe Garden Tool Basket
Budding gardeners as well as veterans will adore this beautiful set of gardening essentials, all housed in a natural rattan basket. You won't even have to gift-wrap this beauty - simply tie a ribbon into a bow and add a gift tag for minimal wrapping that'll still feel special.
Buy now £29.00, Cotswold Company
Liberty Unframed Honeydew Archive Liberty Art Print
Bring the beauty of a flourishing garden to your home with help from Liberty, which has a selection of stunning wall prints plucked from its extensive archives. The unframed print is just the thing to liven up a blank wall or bring and empty corner to life.
Measures 50 x 40cm.
Buy now £40.00, Liberty
David Austin Desdemona rose
This is perhaps the most graceful modern rose around: exquisite gentle white blooms, curving inwards, and a lovely scent. It won’t flower in the winter months, but the label will show the beauty ahead. Like many roses, it’s suitable for planting in containers. 110cm (3.5 foot) by 110cm.
Buy now £23.00, David Austin
Crocus pear 'Obelisk'
They come in a range of sizes and prices, but here is a nice, relatively compact pear tree – it grows to three metres but the spread is a relatively modest one metre – which will yield green dessert pears in October.
It’ll be bare-branched now but the leaves follow come spring. Dress it up in a big terracotta pot and wrap a satin bow around it for present-giving.
Buy now £109.99, Crocus
The Newt Forager's Hamper
We may be a long way from Somerset, but you can bring a piece of the West Country home thanks to The Newt. The award-winning hotel and gardens has a raft of elegant gifts ready for gifting, including the Forager's Hamper.
Delivered in a robust wooden box (that's just screaming for a second life as a planter), it's a rich bounty of goods made from the estate. Think sweet preserves made from hedgerow fruits, cyder-infused chutney, liqueur, cordial and a bottle of apple gin, plus more.
Buy now £70.00, The Newt
William Morris at Home Strawberry Thief Gardening Gift Set
Hands can really show wear and tear when gardening. Revive their paws with a gift set that includes pretty yet hard-wearing gloves for potting, weeding and more, and matching hand cream to soothe the skin after the work is done.
Buy now £7.99, M&S
Burgon & Ball PASSIFLORA Kneelo
Every gardener needs a kneeler and this one is both squishy, comfortable and very pretty.
There are several floral patterns in this range but this is the favourite. It’s perhaps a bit less practical than the day-glo ones which you don’t lose sight of when the light fades, but who cares? It’s got memory and EVA foam and is water resistant and you can wipe it clean. It's part of Burgon and Ball’s excellent gift range for the Royal Horticultural Society.
Buy now £25.85, Amazon
RHS Stainless Planting Trowel
So, you thought a trowel was a trowel was a trowel, did you? Well, think on.
There are different trowels for different chores, and this one, in an adorable heart shape, looks cute but is actually heavy duty with a pointed tip; very good for planting bulbs and recommended for containers. The ergonomic design makes it comfortable to hold and it's a sleek-looking thing with a stainless steel head and hardwood handle.
Buy now £16.95, Amazon
Niwaki Daikiba Secateurs
Niwaki tools are terrific and these secateurs, with a slightly elongated blade, are substantial and very effective.
The semi-stainless steel blades hold their edge and sharpen nicely (do get a Niwaki sharpening stone), and the bright yellow handles means you’re less likely to lose them in the compost heap. With care and frequent sharpening, they’ll last. They come with a canvas holder for safe storage.
Buy now £64.90, Amazon
Clematis urophylla 'Winter Beauty'
Some clematis flower in the cold season, and this one, Winter Beauty, is striking, with graceful nodding creamy white flowers set against dark green foliage. It grows fairly rapidly and climbs up walls, pergolas or arches allowing you to frame windows or gardens with the pretty white petals. It needs well-drained soil.
Buy now £13.99, Thompson Morgan
Crocus Olla indoor pot waterer
The Olla is based on a traditional watering technique that uses terracotta and osmosis to water plants slowly. Simply bury the olla in the soil, neck deep, fill it with water and it allows water to seep out slowly through the terracotta for plant roots to absorb. It’s therefore not suitable for tiny pots, but it’s an elegant and sustainable alternative to the plastic varieties.
Buy now £24.99, Crocus
The Real Flower Company Flowerbed Filler Seed Mix
If you don’t have the space and time to plant seeds indoors before thinning and planting out, there’s everything to be said for seed mixes that you simply chuck in prepared soil and leave them to it. This mix is lovely, including Baby's Breath, Mignonette, Calendula, Californian Poppy, Poppy, Candytuft, Corn Marigold, Cornflower, Cosmos, Larkspur. It’s more expensive than most mixes, but it should flower from early June to October, and for up to three years, with self-seeding. The 50g packet – which comes in brown packaging with a picture – should cover 12.5 metres.
Buy now £25.00, The Real Flower Company
Niwaki Standard 'Sukoppu' Garden Spade
This is a functional, strong and light spade - and what gardener wouldn't love that in their tool kit? But the reason I’m including it here is completely superficial; it’s golden and looks pretty. I should say that the paint will wear off over time but while it lasts, it adds a touch of prettiness to the tool set, which is always good for motivation.
It comes in two sizes, small and large.
Buy now £42.00, John Lewis
Crocus Azalea flandresse 'White'
Azalea Flandresse (indoor) Houseplants are having quite the moment, and if you want cheerful ruffled white flowers, how about this agreeable, blousy azalea?
Bear in mind that the plant needs a cool room, plenty of light and regular watering and ideally a temperature around 15 degrees.
In other words, it’s relatively high maintenance, but classier than poinsettia and longer lasting than cut flowers.
Buy now £14.99, Crocus
Kew Leather Gardening Gloves
The best garden gloves I’ve ever used are the Kew leather gloves and the good news is that there’s now a longer version with leather gauntlets, so you can tackle briars and thorny roses fearlessly. These are tough, warm, comfortable and thick, and come with the Kew logo. But if the gardener in your life doesn’t already have the short garden gloves, get them first.
Buy now £35.00, Kew
Arthur Parkinson’s The Flower Yard
Arthur Parkinson’s The Flower Yard is a paean to the transformative possibilities of growing flowers in pots; he does it himself and shows us how. These are flamboyant blooms, life enhancing and space transformative. It’s an obviously useful book for Londoners with little space.
Buy now £18.21, Amazon
Biochar Houseplant Booster
OK, you wouldn’t give this as a present by itself, but if you are presenting someone with a nice plant, it is a thoughtful gesture to put it with this Biochar Houseplant Booster from Carbon Gold, which you mix with compost or add directly to the pot. It improves water retention and root growth.
Buy now £9.99, Amazon
Holly Farrell’s Miniature Garden Grower
This useful little guide by Holly Farrell to making gardens in jars, or indeed all sorts of containers, is a reminder of the fun that can be had from a DIY terrarium. They needn’t be expensive to make and online nurseries like Crocus offer terrarium plants to fill them.
Buy now £9.99, Amazon
