4 Great Gifts for Gardeners

Gardening, like any hobby, has its share of useful tools. One of these tools would be a great gift for the gardener in your life. Visit Gardeners Supply Company for even more ideas. 

Season Extenders
Protecting plants from adverse weather can be critical in both spring and winter. Early planting of crops frequently results in damage from normal spring frosts, while some plants need extra winter protection to look their best in spring. Several types of season extenders are available with these uses in mind. 

The Pop-up Tomato Plant Protector provides a few degrees of spring temperature protection and good wind protection, yet still allows light to penetrate for good growth. The top zips open and close for venting during warm days, but protection at night. Its pop-up design allows the plant protector to be flattened for easy storage.

New products in the garden market make winter protection a little easier, too, like the Pop-up Plant Protector or Shrub Jacket. Both can be used for multiple years and stuffed with leaves or straw to provide the extra winter protection container plants need to survive. Similar products are available from other companies, also. Just make sure the outer covering material is thick enough to offer a good level of temperature protection.

The Rosy Cozy Rose Cone makes winterizing your roses easier, too. It’s wider and taller than a standard styrofoam cone. Place the inner wire cage over the plant and fill it with leaves or mulch for added temperature protection. Next, slip the outer cover over the cage. Anchor it with a brick or rock slipped into the side anchor. The white outer cover reflects heat and helps prevent high temperatures inside the cone. It has a mesh top for added ventilation.

Homemade Houseplant Watering
Create your own slow-release watering system with Hydro Wine terracotta stakes. Simply fill an empty wine bottle with water, then attach a Hydro Wine stake to the neck. Turn the bottle upside down and push the stake into the plant’s potting soil. The hollow terracotta stakes allow water to slowly leach into the soil, maintaining an even soil moisture level. Depending on the size of the wine bottle, moisture will be provided to the plant for about 10 days.

Galvanized Flower Caddy
Does your gardener love flowers and enjoy cutting them for use in arrangements? This vintage-inspired caddy makes gathering and organizing flower or stem cuttings easy. The caddy features four conjoined French flower market buckets, each 5-inches in diameter and 12-inches tall. It has a stable base so it can sit in the garden during harvest and a mango wood handle for easy carrying. Each bucket holds water so the flowers can be placed in water as soon as they are cut.

Rain Chain
Looking for something whimsical and fun for your gardener? Rain chains originated hundreds of years ago in Japan and are a beautiful alternative to a traditional downspout. Rainwater bounces and travels down the chain creating a beautiful cascading sound. Design features, from a simple decorative chain to more elaborate cupped styles, provide less or more resistance in slowing the movement of water. The rain chain is attached to a gutter and directs water down to a rain barrel, a basin, or all the way to the ground and into a rain garden, dry stream bed, swale or landscape bed.

For more information on how rain chains work, visit Rain Chain from Clemson Cooperative Extension.

Two rain chain styles include those below.

• Stellar Copper Rain Chain
• Fish Pure Copper Rain Chain

Your gardener will appreciate your attention to detail in finding a great gardening gift!