It can be difficult to find the right gift for everyone on your Christmas shopping list. If there's a gardener on your list, consider some of the following.
Garden calendars are excellent gifts for gardeners. The 2017 ISU Extension Garden Calendar (entitled "Indoor Flower Power") contains attractive photographs of indoor flowering plants and monthly how-to tips in a 9x12-inch format. The ISU Garden Calendar is available from the ISU Extension Online Store (https://store.extension.iastate.edu/) for $7.00 plus shipping. It can also be purchased at county extension offices in the state. Other garden calendars can be purchased at bookstores and other retail businesses.
All gardeners can use an additional book to add to their library. Excellent reference books include "Growing Perennials in Cold Climates" by Mike Heger, Debbie Lonnee, and John Whitman; "Growing Shrubs and Small Trees in Cold Climates" by Debbie Lonnee, Nancy Rose, Don Selinger, and John Whitman; "Manual of Woody Landscape Plants" by Michael Dirr; "Herbaceous Perennial Plants" by Allan Armitage, and many others.
Plants are always great gifts for gardeners. Possibilities include the poinsettia, Christmas cactus, Norfolk Island pine, cyclamen, and other seasonal plants. An amaryllis bulb is another popular gift. A gift certificate from a local garden center or nursery would also be greatly appreciated. The gardener can use the gift certificate to purchase a tree, shrub, or other plants next spring.
An individual or family membership to the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden, Reiman Gardens at Iowa State University, Iowa Arboretum, or other public garden is sure to delight your gardening relatives and friends. An annual membership gives them free, unlimited visits for one year and other benefits.
Other possibilities include tools (trowel, pruning shears, hori hori knife, etc.), clothing (hat, work gloves, mud boots, etc.), and garden accessories (bird feeder, fountain, garden statuary, weather instruments, etc.). The possibilities are almost endless.
Links to this article are strongly encouraged, and this article may be republished without further permission if published as written and if credit is given to the author, Yard and Garden, and Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. If this article is to be used in any other manner, permission from the author is required. This article was originally published on December 9, 2016. The information contained within may not be the most current and accurate depending on when it is accessed.