December 22nd, 2021Around the house with Glen
A gift that keeps on giving
It’s the same each year. Christmas Day is closing in fast. You’ve still got names on your gift list and mere hours left to fill it. Problem solved. Go garden.
I can’t say I know anybody who wouldn’t appreciate something botanical for their home, whether it be a flowering shrub, a potted plant for the window sill, or even a plant-themed ornament and, of course, there’s a plethora of gardening books.
The good news is that almost all of these are to be found in your local garden outlet or nursery.
Of course, if your friend or relative is a gardener, you have an advantage as the problem is easily solved. At the same time however it pays to consider well what they would find interesting.
Not too big a problem, there are always new varieties or colours available for just about every popular plant.
The automatic choice of a hydrangea, the living Christmas gift most often given, although showy and tempting, could be limited in its appeal either because so many gardeners already have them growing or they don’t have the space for something of that size.
A carefully selected Christmas gift plant could open up a whole new gardening world for the receiver. Fortunately, there are many indoor-tolerant plants and always somewhere they will grow, particularly when there’s a porch or a well-lit windowsill just begging for a little colourful plant life.
Leading the fray and looking at their best in the garden centres at present, are plenty of fine looking ferns, pictured bottom left, philodendrons, sansevieria (snake plant), palms and other ornamental foliage favourites that can be as ornamental and colourful year round.
For floral colour, along with the all-time international favourite floral emblem of Christmas, poinsettias, pictured above, there are African violets, cyclamens and those many coloured, long-flowering phalaenopsis (butterfly) orchids.
But don’t limit your choice to just indoor plants, there are always plenty of colourful shrubs looking at their best right now and a great gift, especially if supplied with an attractive, ornamental pot.
One of the biggest reincarnations in the garden world, with seemingly endless new and different species arriving on the scene is that of what, until recent times, was disparagingly passed off as Granny’s garden plants, the ubiquitous succulent tribe.
The title, succulent, covers more than those strange, parched, spiky-leafed or cabbage-like potted plants on our grandparents’ porch. In fact, if you looked carefully in your own garden you would be surprised to find many plants are, in fact succulents. Frangipani, pictured bottom right, the climbing waxy-flowered hoyas are for a start.
But I stray from the course and will uncover more secret succulents in my next column.
Be that as it may there are myriad small-growing, multi-coloured succulents available which would make excellent gifts and can be used either as pot plants, in window boxes or in dry, sunny aspects in the garden.
Some, as well as having handsome, colourful or interesting foliage also provide colourful flowers at this time of year. Best of all they’re almost bullet-proof, needing little care.
Apart from plant life most garden outlets also stock a great range of attractive pots and complementary ornaments as well as gardening gadgets and tools. All of which make highly desirable gifts for your gardening friends.
Some will also carry a range of gardening books, both pictorial and technical.
If all of that still leaves you wondering about what to give, there’s always the gift voucher to fall back on.
Have a great Christmas, I’ll be back with more of the same next year,
Glen
Got a gardening query? Email glenzgarden@gmail.com
