Best gifts for gardeners 2023: Top ideas for green-fingered family and friends

Budding gardeners as well as veterans will adore this beautiful set of gardening essentials, all housed in a natural rattan basket. You won't even have to gift-wrap this beauty - simply tie a ribbon into a bow and add a gift tag to have to ready to sit under the tree.

It's a sad fact that most London homes don't have a garden - but why should that stop you from encouraging green fingers? Patch Plants brings the outside in with its shelf-top terrarium that's practically unkillable and will thrive in almost any light condition. It's the perfect gift for nature-lovers who don't have the time for proper tending as the self-contained eco-system gets on with things all by itself. Available in two sizes and with most London addresses for delivery.

Bring the beauty of a flourishing garden to your home with help from Liberty, which has a selection of stunning wall prints plucked from its extensive archives. The unframed print is just the thing to liven up a blank wall or bring and empty corner to life. Measures 50 x 40cm.

This is perhaps the most graceful modern rose I can think of: exquisite gentle white blooms, curving inwards, and a lovely scent. It won’t, obviously, be in flower at Christmas, but the label will show the beauty ahead. Like many roses, it’s suitable for planting in containers. 110cm (3.5 foot) by 110cm.

A partridge in a pear tree. Whimsical, yes - but what could be nicer?

They come in a range of sizes and prices, but here is a nice, relatively compact pear tree – it grows to three metres but the spread is a relatively modest one metre – which will yield green dessert pears in October.

It’ll be bare-branched in December - we know, far from ideal - but the leaves follow in spring. Until then, dress it up in a big terracotta pot and wrap a satin bow around it for present-giving.

We may be a long way from Somerset, but you can bring a piece of the West Country home this Christmas thanks to The Newt. The award-winning hotel and gardens has a raft of elegant gifts ready for gifting, including the Forager's Hamper.

Delivered in a robust wooden box (that's just screaming for a second life as a planter), it's a rich bounty of goods made from the estate. Think sweet preserves made from hedgerow fruits, cyder-infused chutney, liqueur, cordial and a bottle of apple gin, plus more. Choose the 'Christmas Gift' option to have it delivered to your intended in grand style.

Hands can really show wear and tear when gardening. Revive their paws this Christmas with a gift set that includes pretty yet hard-wearing gloves for potting, weeding and more, and a matching hand cream to soothe the skin after the work is done.

Every gardener needs a kneeler and this one is both squishy, comfortable and very pretty.

There are several floral patterns in this range but this is the favourite. It’s perhaps a bit less practical than the day-glo ones which you don’t lose sight of when the light fades, but who cares? It’s got memory and EVA foam and is water resistant and you can wipe it clean. It's part of Burgon and Ball’s excellent gift range for the Royal Horticultural Society.

So, you thought a trowel was a trowel was a trowel, did you? Well, think on.

There are different trowels for different chores, and this one, in an adorable heart shape, looks cute but is actually heavy duty with a pointed tip; very good for planting bulbs and recommended for containers. The ergonomic design makes it comfortable to hold and it's a sleek-looking thing with a stainless steel head and hardwood handle.

Niwaki tools are terrific and these secateurs, with a slightly elongated blade, are substantial and very effective. The semi-stainless steel blades hold their edge and sharpen nicely (do get a Niwaki sharpening stone), and the bright yellow handles means you’re less likely to lose them in the compost heap. With care, and frequent sharpening, they’ll last. They come with a canvas holder for safe storage.

This Burgon and Ball five-litre waterfall watering can is terrifically smart with a single elegant handle. It’s made of galvanised steel in a range of colours – the racing green or the stone are nicest. This is a good size for most gardens; not too heavy for most of us to lift when it’s full. The rose (spray end) is removable, which makes cleaning a doddle. It comes with a five-year guarantee.

Some clematis flower in December and January, and this one, Winter Beauty, is striking, with graceful nodding creamy white flowers set against dark green foliage. It grows fairly rapidly, and climbs up walls, pergolas or arches allowing you to frame windows or gardens with the pretty white petals. It needs well-drained soil.

Most gardening aprons are functional rather than fun, but this one, by Perkins and Morley, covered in asters, looks like a garden itself. It’s made from lightweight cotton, so may not be one for hardcore jobs, but it comes with the requisite pocket in the front for your secateurs and seed packets. It’s 85cm x 61 cm with black straps; the neck is adjustable.

The Olla is based on a traditional watering technique that uses terracotta and osmosis to water plants slowly. Simply bury the olla in the soil, neck deep, fill it with water and it allows water to seep out slowly through the terracotta for plant roots to absorb. It’s therefore not suitable for tiny pots, but it’s an elegant and sustainable alternative to the plastic varieties.

If you don’t have the space and time to plant seeds indoors before thinning and planting out, there’s everything to be said for seed mixes that you simply chuck in prepared soil and leave them to it. This mix is lovely, including Baby's Breath, Mignonette, Calendula, Californian Poppy, Poppy, Candytuft, Corn Marigold, Cornflower, Cosmos, Larkspur. It’s more expensive than most mixes, but it should flower from early June to October, and for up to three years, with self-seeding. The 50g packet – which comes in brown packaging with a picture – should cover 12.5 metres.

This is a functional, strong and light spade - and what gardener wouldn't love that in their tool kit? But the reason I’m including it here is completely superficial; it’s golden and looks pretty. I should say that the paint will wear off over time but while it lasts, it adds a touch of prettiness to the tool set, which is always good for motivation.

It comes in two sizes, small and large.

Azalea Flandresse (indoor) Houseplants are having quite the moment, and if you want cheerful ruffled white flowers, how about this agreeable, blousy azalea?

Bear in mind that the plant needs a cool room, plenty of light and regular watering and ideally a temperature around 15 degrees.

In other words, it’s relatively high maintenance, but classier than poinsettia and longer lasting than cut flowers.

The best garden gloves I’ve ever used are the Kew leather gloves and the good news is that there’s now a longer version with leather gauntlets, so you can tackle briars and thorny roses fearlessly. These are tough, warm, comfortable and thick, and come with the Kew logo. But if the gardener in your life doesn’t already have the short garden gloves, get them first.

Cosmos are prolific, easy to grow (though the big ones may need support), pretty and perfect cut flowers. Anything not to like? This useful tin from Sarah Raven gives two white, two dark pink varieties in separate packets.

There’s something wild about the way creamy white amaryllis burst out of their fat shoots - and there are two from Sarah Raven that are very pretty. If you want just a bulb (gift-wrapping available on request when ordering), the lime-centred Lemon Star is very attractive. Or if you can afford a basket of three, Amaryllis Marilyn, pure white with double blooms, comes in a classy willow basket and measures 10cm height, 13cm diameter. They arrive in December with the shoots just showing, to bring on indoors. Flowering height, 45cm.

Arthur Parkinson’s The Flower Yard is a paean to the transformative possibilities of growing flowers in pots; he does it himself and shows us how. These are flamboyant blooms, life enhancing and space transformative. It’s an obviously useful book for Londoners with little space. 

OK, you wouldn’t give this as a present by itself, but if you are presenting someone with a nice plant, it is a thoughtful gesture to put it with this Biochar Houseplant Booster from Carbon Gold, which you mix with compost or add directly to the pot. It improves water retention and root growth.

This useful little guide by Holly Farrell to making gardens in jars, or indeed all sorts of containers, is a reminder of the fun that can be had from a DIY terrarium. They needn’t be expensive to make and online nurseries like Crocus offer terrarium plants to fill them.