All I Want For Christmas Is Plants

Green-fingered gifting ideas that aren't "some nice gloves and a flowery trowel"

With less than a month before Christmas, you might be starting to think about Christmas gifting, especially if you’ve just got the pay packet that’s supposed to pay for it all… If you’ve got someone who’s into gardening, here’s what might be on their Christmas list — and if it’s you who’s into gardening, here’s some things to add to yours. Let me know what else you’re buying in the comments.

A cold frame

There are loads of cold frames (or mini greenhouses) about, starting at around £30 for plastic ones to around £85 for these types from Amazon and the like. Seeing as it’s going to live in my garden, I like the look of this Wooden Framed Garden Greenhouse Growhouse Kit (£99.99) from Not On The High Street. Coldframes mean MORE PLANTS (or, at least less dead plants) because you can grow like you’ve got a bit of cover against the cold weather, overwintering favourite tender plants, growing seeds, and potting on. Just think, you wouldn’t have to put things on every windowsill in your house! If you’re living with a gardener, that’s worth it, surely?

Paeonia 'All that Jazz'

CREDIT: Farmer Gracy

Peonies are an amazing gift because who doesn’t love peonies? But they also come back year after year, better than ever, sometimes for decades… every few years they get big enough to be divided too. They’re hard to kill and quite easy to manage (just cut them back once a year) and these Itoh varieties are apparently the easiest and hardiest of them all. There are much cheaper and classic peonies available (Sarah Bernhardt is recognisable gorgeous and only £5.95 for one bare root) but I’ve fallen for some of these rarer ones at Farmer Gracy. I recently bought the Lollipop (£20.93) and I’ve still got my eye on All That Jazz (£45.50). If you’re buying this for someone as a Christmas gift, I’d recommend not buying and packaging up — bare roots need to be planted as soon as possible. You could get it sent to someone just before or just after Christmas, as they can be planted in December, but you might be best making a nice voucher and posting out to them in February when they can go straight in the ground.

A Potting Bench

My favourite thing to do is talk about making ‘free plants’ and then spend loads of money buying the compost, pots and various tools needed to make them. Like how I spent about £75 last year buying a planter and the compost to fill it, then managed to grow about three courgettes (around £1.29 in Tesco). Now, I really want a potting bench. Currently, when repotting my seedlings I use the kids’ craft tray thing and pop it on top of a table I keep meaning to FB marketplace off. I like this potting table for the drawer, the shelving and crucially the sink bit. There’s lots around and they’re actually not as much as I thought they were (some really fancy ones with worktops are a few hundred). This one from B&Q is £84.99 and I already know where I’d put it in the garden…

Sarah Raven Abundant Borders Letterbox Collection

This is 30% off in a Black Friday sale, so you get nine packets of seeds for £16 in a really sweet letterbox package. It include two types of Cosmos which are always a bright summer win and my favourite, some salvia seeds, too.

BDG Olive Leopard Print Fleece

I don’t love gardening in a coat — a hoodie or fleece is best. And sorry, but if I’m getting a quick half hour in the garden, then I’ve likely just crept out when everyone is occupied (on iPads) so I’m definitely not getting changed specifically. I love this leopard print fleece from Urban Outfitters (£49) and think it’d be perfect for pottering around and then inevitably having to jump straight into the car to taxi someone to whatever club they’ve got booked in.

Another prayer plant

I love getting house plants as gifts and the prayer plant is a favourite, it always looks so nice, it provides constant interest moving about and is easy enough to take care of. I like this one from Patch (from £18) because you can buy it with a matching pot, all in one. If you can afford to in your budget, I always think it’s nice to include a pot, otherwise it’s a gift that basically means they have to buy something else… though every plant lover would probably be glad of that opportunity tbf.

Eversharp Lite All Purpose Secateurs

I’d say secateurs are my most used garden tools, I always think it’s amazing how much of gardening involves cutting things down. I also don’t know what I’m doing, so I just use one pair for everything from huge trees hanging from my neighbour’s garden to deadheading. That’s probably why they blunt and break all the time and I have to buy another cheap pair on the regular. These are recommended by Gardener’s World and I’m a marketer’s dream, so I saw “eversharp” and truly believe they will be ever sharp. Which for £34.95, I’d hope they would be…

An M&S vase

There’s so many nice bits in M&S at the moment and vases are amongst that… I love this Medium Floral Ceramic Cylinder Vase (£19.50) that I’ll hopefully fill with flowers from the garden in sunnier days.

Fuck Off I’m Gardening cap

Because, while it might not feel like it now, it can sometimes get hot out there in the garden, and also because it made me LOL when two people independently sent it to me on Instagram earlier this year. I’m gutted the green has sold out, but the white one is on sale for £39.

A garden centre voucher

Photo by Siora Photography on Unsplash

I’m not in the “vouchers are a cop-out” camp. I rarely think it’s “ok” to treat myself, so a voucher is a real gift and a gardening centre voucher means an excuse to take myself off to use it. A double gift. Unless you really know someone’s garden or what they love, it can be risky buying a plant (especially at this time of year), so this is a safe option. You can use a national garden gift card somewhere in most of the UK.