It may be cold outside, but romance is in the air with Valentine’s Day around the corner, so warm up for spring by giving your loved one a gift to get them in the mood for gardening.
There are so many heart-warming gifts on offer, from pretty watering cans in pastel shades and colourful planters filled with hyacinths, dwarf narcissi and snowdrops, to garden-orientated kitchen accessories, natural bath products and heart-shaped decorative plant accessories.
Hearts are very much in focus for Valentine’s whether your loved one has a large garden or just a small space.
Even practical tools come heart-shaped, including a thoughtfully-designed 26cm long planting trowel by Sneeboer (£24.95, harrodhorticultural.com), which combines a fine cherrywood handle with a sharp point making it ideal for bulb planting. You can make your gift more special by including your own personal engraved message on the blade.
A little love can go a long way, so add a touch of romance to your windowsill herbs with heart-shaped herb stone effect markers (£2.50, Gisela Graham, 020 87833663), which fit in the palm of your hand and come in eight different designs. They’re made from resin and can be left outside or used indoors.
If you want to let the plants do the talking, show a loved one how special they are by naming a unique pack of rose seeds after them that they can grow into a beautiful rose bush to cherish. The Name a Rose Gift Box (£19.95, gettingpersonal .co.uk) lets you choose the name of the rose, or alternatively, a personalised Valentine’s Roses Planter (£49.95, gettingpersonal.co.uk), filled with red roses, will convey the romantic message of your choice.
If your partner is partial to a cuppa while relaxing in the garden, brighten her day with a Crazy Daisy jumbo cup and saucer decorated in multi-coloured pastel shades (£18.50, portmeirion.com).
Once spring arrives and you are back in the garden, your partner will be over the moon with a colourful gardening bag in which to keep her many tools, plant ties, secateurs and string. Go for a colourful one, like a folk design bag made from durable canvas cotton (£10.50, Gisela Graham, 020 87833663).
If your partner loves making chutneys and jams from the garden harvest, brighten up the look of the jars with a set of pretty gingham jar covers (£3.95 for 12, burgonandball.com) to encapsulate the country kitchen atmosphere.
Garden trinkets have also become more popular in recent years, with a variety of glass balls, butterflies and copper leaves on long stems being used as a decorative addition to planters.
If you go down this route, a good idea is to go for one which also waters your pots, such as an eco-water feeder (£9.95, home2garden.co.uk) made of hand-blown 100 per cent recycled glass. It is frost-proof and collects rainwater (or you can fill it), feeding water slowly through its stem into the soil underneath.
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