Gifts for gardeners can cost as little, or as much, as you want, says Gillian Vine.
Free
Give the gift of time. Take someone who rarely gets out for a stroll in a botanic garden, perhaps with afternoon tea to follow; offer to cut a neighbour's lawn while they're on holiday; or do an hour's weeding or pruning for an elderly relative for whom routine gardening tasks are getting a bit hard to keep up with. Make your offer unique by creating a card with: ‘‘This voucher entitles the bearer to . . . ''
Under $10
Grown for the leaves rather than its scarlet flowers is this Pinto geranium. In frost-prone areas, grow it in a pot and keep it covered over winter; $7.99 from Nichol's.
Under $15
For gardeners on tight budgets, potting mix or compost can be a welcome present. Unfortunately, for many it can be a struggle to lift heavy bags. Daltons have come up with lightweight alternatives in their Easy Lift range (25lt bags instead of the usual 40lt). There is a potting mix for indoor or outdoor use, Easy Lift Garden Mix and Easy Lift Container Mix. Retailing at about $14, they are stocked by Bunnings and some garden centres.
Under $15
A dwarf version of the popular shrub, this low-growing abutilon comes in orange, white, red or yellow; $14.90 from Blueskin Nurseries.
Under $15
The sweet, clove-like perfume of dianthus makes them winners. This is Bright Eyes, one of many at Blueskin Nurseries, Waitati. The garden centre also has in stock the top-selling Memories, a double white bred in England and one of the most highly perfumed of any dianthus on the market; $14.90 each.
Under $20
Arriving on Great Barrier Island in the 1860s, the Blackwell family farmed and pioneered beekeeping. A descendant of the original family, Les Blackwell, works in his garden and has a range of gardeners' products named after him. Utilising local manuka honey, olive oil and beeswax, the hand cream is endorsed by Les. Matakana Botanicals, which makes the products, donates 50c from the sale of each hand cream to the Aotea Family Charitable trust which supports local community and eco-projects on Great Barrier Island. Products in the range are available at outlets around Otago or order online at www.lesfloralies.co.nz
Under $25
Put some style into a girlfriend's garden by giving her a classy pink-accented trug. Originally from Sussex, where a trug was used to truck produce to market, they're now recognised as handy, lightweight baskets to carry flowers, small garden tools, seed packets, fruit and vegetables. Line a trug with paper to keep it clean if carrying the likes of carrots or spuds; $24.99 from Nichol's.
Under $25
Just the ticket for storing opened packets of seed, plant labels and the marker pen that's never there when needed, this tin will help get the gardener organised; $22.99 from Nichol's.
From $9.99 to $130
Books by New Zealanders - including adult colouring books ($9.99 and $19.99) by Wanaka artist Rosalind Monks - are among the line-up at Paper Plus, in Dunedin. They also stock coffee-table books about famous overseas gardens, among them Paradise and Plenty ($130), the story of Eythrope, Jacob Rothschild's garden in Buckinghamshire. Author Mary Keen was the designer of the garden, where the intention was to create an age of opulence.
Over $8000
Garden tours with a group take the worries out of travelling. Auckland company Flora Tours has two significant garden-related tours next year, the first in April to Floralies 2016, in the beautiful Belgian city of Ghent. The 14-day tour also includes Keukenhof, Amsterdam, Monet's garden at Giverny (pictured), Paris and Loire Valley chateaux.
The second tour, starting in July, marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of Capability Brown and takes in some of the landscaper's most famous English gardens. This tour also includes the RHS Hampton Court Palace flower show, RHS Wisley, Sissinghurst and the Cotswolds. Each tour costs $8495 per person (twin share) but Otago Daily Times readers who book by January 31, 2016, get a $500 discount per tour.
For details, see www.thetourcompany.co.nz
