Far more exciting than a voucher or a pair of socks, plants make fabulous Christmas presents. From indoor bulbs for friends who don't have any outside space to winter-flowering shrubs for relatives with large gardens, there is something for everyone.
Crowd pleasers
Flowering bulbs that have been ready grown via forcing make gorgeous Christmas gifts. Sarah Raven sells a range of potted amaryllis, hyacinths, and paperwhite narcissi in bud. Both hyacinths and paperwhites will fill a room with beautiful perfume and – being potted – all three will give a much longer display than a bunch of flowers. Many florists also sell these bulbs in pots and in flower in December.
Eastern Cyclamen (Cyclamen coum) are please-all plants, producing colourful flowers throughout winter and small enough to fit into any garden or windowbox. They are easy to grow in part shade, either in pots or humus-rich retentive soil. Buy a gaggle of different colours and present them in a single or double salvage brick mould or a wine box; alternatively, pot them up yourself in a pretty container.
Christmas colour
Golden pines fly the flag for bringing conifers back into fashion and the compact forms make lovely gifts. The dense needles of drought-tolerant Pinus mugo 'Carsten's Wintergold' are lime in summer and amber yellow in winter. Reaching around 50 centimetres tall by one metre wide, it is easy to grow in containers or borders of well-drained soil, in full sun for the best colour.
Dogwoods with colourful winter stems make stunning gifts for a friend or relative with a medium to large garden. During the cold months, when planted in sun, the bare stems of Cornus sanguinea 'Midwinter Fire' glow incredible shades of coral, pink, and orange, and C. alba 'Sibirica' blazes sealing-wax red. They are easy to grow and can reach 2 metres wide and high.
Wildlife plants
Winter Clematis are delightful short climbers that bloom from December to March, providing bees with food when there is little else available. Clematis cirrhosa 'Jingle Bells' (ivory white) and new cultivar 'Christmas Surprise' (primrose cream) both have bell flowers and evergreen leaves, but, being slightly more tender than some clematis, demand a sheltered south or west-facing position.
Holly is one of the traditional plants of the Winter Solstice and Christmas, but most forms don't make the safest gifts being spiky. Therefore, the almost spineless Ilex aquifolium 'J.C. van Tol' is perfect. In winter, its glossy evergreen leaves are paired with clumps of bright-red berries that feed birds. Capable of 6 metres, this easy self-fertile tree is a suitable gift for someone with a medium to large garden.
Postable gifts
Sweet peas can be sown in January or February, so a box of seeds is a delightful gift for a gardener. The Crocus Heritage Sweet Pea Box offers a great selection of deliciously scented old varieties, such as 'Painted Lady'; Sarah Raven's Harlequin Sweet Pea Collection contains a riot of colour and perfume, including 'Matucana'; and Easton Walled Gardens' Sweet Pea Gift Tin has three assortments of Lathyrus odoratus, all selected from the garden's cut-flower Pickery.
Tomatoes can be sown from late winter, under cover. The Kew Tomato and Herb Seed Box contains a tasty line-up of Mediterranean herbs and tomatoes; the Heirloom Tomatoes Seed Collection Gift Box from The Hampshire Seed Company offers an exciting assortment of hybrids, including Black Krim and Garden Peach; and Thomas Etty Esq sells a Colourful Tomatoes Gift Box, composed of green, white, red, black, orange, and yellow varieties for an incredible salad palette come summer.
Winter scent
Sweet box (Sarcococca) is an excellent gift, being compact, easy to grow, and suitable for most gardens. The glossy evergreen leaves provide colour all year in shade or part shade, and the tiny white winter flowers are strongly scented and attractive to bees. Winter Gem and 'Dragon Gate' are two of the best varieties.
Viburnums that bloom in winter produce flowers over a long period and one of the prettiest is Viburnum x bodnantense 'Charles Lamont', which carries clusters of very fragrant pink and white flowers on bare branches from November to March. It will grow to 3 metres tall by 2 metres wide, making a gorgeous gift for someone with a medium to large garden; in a small garden, this easy shrub usually works best as a tree (achieved via selective pruning immediately after flowering: remove the lower branches to create a single or multi-stemmed trunk).
Pot plants
Hellebores make perfect gifts, being small, and the best for 25 December is of course the Christmas rose (Helleborus niger), which flowers early. The variety 'Christmas Carol' is reliable and floriferous, sending up a mass of white saucer flowers that feed bees. It is best grown in pots, against a wall, in part shade.
Christmas Cacti (Schlumbergera) are exotic-looking houseplants that are hung with colourful flowers in winter, from hot pink to pink white. Unlike most cacti, they enjoy the humidity of a bathroom or a kitchen. Other options for winter-flowering indoor plants include elegant moth orchids and fragrant Persian cyclamen.
For green-fingered loved ones
Bonsai is the ancient Japanese art of growing and shaping miniature trees, and it's a fun, rewarding hobby for someone with green fingers. Springfield Bonsai Nursery sells a superb range of quality indoor and outdoor bonsai trees, of various ages, including traditional Japanese species and UK native trees, as well as Workshop Vouchers for the nursery's regular courses in Devon. Bonsai Master Class by Kunio Kobayashi is a useful new instruction book.
Roses are best planted bare root in winter and the red varieties make excellent Christmas gifts. 'Climbing Etoile de Hollande' is a wonderful Tea rose that will clad a 4-metre sunny wall with strongly scented double flowers, and 'Bengal Crimson' is a fabulous China rose with single flowers that feed bees; it can be grown in pots or borders or trained as a short climber, but demands a sheltered sun spot. Both these rich-red roses are old varieties, yet they have healthy foliage and bloom throughout summer and autumn; 'Bengal Crimson' has even been known to flower at Christmas.
