My favorite last minute gift is a certificate for making purchases from one of the many mail order plant catalogs.
Examples: Park seed will sell you certificates for a 20% discount. Just click on "Supplies and Gifts" at parkseed.com and use the code "PARK CERT when you check out.
Burpee provides $25 and $50 gift certificates. There is no discount available but the $50 certificates come with a free pair of gardening gloves in either a flower or tomato design.
Would you like to give an entire garden to someone special? Take a look at Bluestone Perennials to see their ready-made gardens.
Alternatively, you may want to check for local garden centers that offer gift certificates. Having a gift certificate in hand makes it fun to shop for plants - the recipient doesn't have to feel guilty about spending the money on plants or other gardening supplies. I KNOW how much I appreciate such a gift.
Books/Magazine Subscriptions
Subscriptions to gardening societies are also welcome. You could give them a gift certificate to amazon.com and let them pick out their own books.
Best Deal Magazines let's you give gifts to many gardening (and other topics) magazines for very reasonable prices.
Membership in a Plant Society
Here are some suggestions:
International Geranium Society
North American Rock Garden Society
This is just a sample of the plant societies available. Just use the term "plant society" in your favorite search engine and you'll be surprised at the number of plant societies available today. You can usually purchase a membership online for 2004 for your favorite gardener. If you must use snail mail, just give the recipient a nice holiday greeting card with a note that they will soon receive notice of their 2004 membership.
Apparel
If you have some free time, you can often find nice sweatshirts or t-shirts with assorted plant or gardening scenes printed on them. Do you have a photo of your favorite gardener available? Some photo labs are now able to print it on a t-shirt or sweatshirt for you.
See you next month.
Go To Page: 1
