Fun Gifts for Gardeners

With a focus on native plants, of course!

As the winter solstice gradually approaches, regardless of the traditions you celebrate, for many, the season of gift giving also arrives. Gifting for a gardener is delightfully easy and options abound. Here are a few suggestions to delight your gardener.

A Day Immersed in Discussions about Nature & Ecological Gardens

Equally appropriate for professionals and beginners, "Integrating Ecology, Beauty and Adaptability in Design" is the focus of the annual GreenScapes Symposium presented by Brookside Gardens. This year's presenters include Patrick Cullina, VP of horticulture at New York City's High Line, and Heather Holms, a well known pollinator conservationist, author and speaker. The Symposium is presented on-line from 9 to 4 on February 13th. Plenty of time for your recipient to plan a day off from work! And coming in February, the Symposium is a welcome winter diversion. Information and registration is here.

Local Art Featuring Natives

Kriebel Art Print

Kriebel Art Print

Local artist Marcella Kriebel features foods and botanicals in her art. She embraces both the northwest where she grew up and the mid-Atlantic which she now calls home. These small affordable art prints are colorful and inspiring. Native Plants of the Mid Atlantic also comes in a dish towel! You can explore all of her work here.

Tools for a Lifetime from CobraHead

Hazelnut

Anneliese

I met Anneliese Valdez at an annual gathering of garden bloggers and social media influencers and if you like shopping at a family owned small business, this is the real deal. Hazelnut is Executive Director of Canine Affairs at CobraHead HQ in Wisconsin. This is serious stuff though. Modeled after an antique tool discovered by Anneliese's Dad, the CobraHead Garden Weeder has a devoted following. CobraHead also sells other lifetime tools -- Felco pruners and loppers. Either of these make a perfect gift for the just getting started gardener as well as the pro. Not sure whether your gardener has these tools? You can always give them the choice with a gift card.

A Persimmon Tree

If the gardener in your life is in it for the long haul, and has space, there is no finer gift than a tree! It doesn't have to be a terribly expensive proposition. Larger garden centers carry native trees in all sorts of sizes. Research shows that a tree, or any plant for that matter, planted in a smaller size, develops a healthier root system over the long term than if initially planted in a larger size. So long as the ground is not frozen, trees can still be planted.

My tree of choice? A common persimmon (Diospyros virginiana). Once mature, they are just stunning in late fall as this street tree in Washington D.C. was a week ago. Persimmons are also the larval host for the ethereal luna moth. Usually, for persimmons, a male and female tree are needed. The female tree bears the fruit. You can find trees that are sold as self pollinating but experts say, it's best to have a male and female. It will also likely take three to five years, and sometimes longer, before the tree starts to fruit in earnest.

Merrifield Garden Center in Falls Church, VA, Patuxent Nursery in Bowie, MD, Unity Church Hill Nursery in Church Hill, MD and Stadlers Nursery in Gaithersburg, MD and Kollar Nursery in Pylesville, MD usually carry a good selection of native trees into winter. If you know of another nursery, or your nursery, carries native trees now, please add in the comments below!

A Gift Card to Your Gardener's Favorite Native Plant Nursery

More and more of our native plant nurseries are offering gift cards. Is there a better gift card than one for plants?! These nurseries offer gift cards.

A Little Farm and Nursery (MD): purchase here.

Chesapeake Natives: purchase here.

Direct Native Plants: purchase here.

Earth Sangha (VA): purchase here.

Herring Run Nursery (MD): purchase here.

Izel Plants (on-line): purchase here.

Lauren's Garden Service & Cultivate (MD): purchase here.

Lillian Farms: purchase here.

Plant More Natives (on-line): purchase here.

Unity Church Hill Nursery (MD): purchase here.

Watermark Woods Nursery (VA): purchase here.

Wildflower Native Plant Nursery: purchase here.

A Gift from Your Garden

For the person who loves all things botanical, a box overflowing with holly branches, winterberry or red twig dogwood stems, or short pieces of inkberry, eastern red cedar or magnolia can be a welcomed surprise. Tie a ribbon around it and it might just be the best gift of all!

Previous gift idea lists are here and here. I also note I have no finanical connection to any of these businesses - as always, just promoting native plants! Give anyone of these gifts to your gardener and you'll be met with smiles!

Happy Gardening.