Make gift giving easy with unique green gifts that provide weeks and in some cases months and years of beauty. Plus, gifting easy-care blooming plants is an experiential gift that’s ideal for almost everyone.
Gardeners as well as practical family members and friends will enjoy the dual purpose the Christmas rose (hellebore) provides. This popular European holiday plant is gaining popularity in holiday celebrations in the U.S. Recipients will enjoy up to two months of blossoms indoors when grown in a cool bright location. Once the danger of frost has passed, it can be moved outdoors into a full or partially shaded spot in the garden for years of added beauty.
Even non-gardeners will be fascinated by the amaryllis as its beauty erupts from the bulb to eventually produce several large trumpet-shaped blooms.
Make it easy and fun with a waxed amaryllis bulb. Dipped in colorful wax, these freestanding bulbs need no soil or water. Just set the waxed bulb in a space where they can be enjoyed and watch the magic happen as the amaryllis breaks through the wax coating and grows into a colorful specimen.
Impress avid gardeners with unique varieties like papillio butterfly amaryllis. The flowers resemble orchids and are quite striking with maroon striped green petals. The narrow chartreuse lily-like blossoms of evergreen eventually turn apple green, making it stand out among the red amaryllis and poinsettias of the season.
Dress up an amaryllis by planting the bulb in a pretty container, setting it on stones in a glass hurricane or combining it with spring-flowering bulbs like tulips, grape hyacinths and crocus.
Provide some aromatherapy with fragrant flowers and herbs. Lily-of-the-valley may be a bully in the garden, but it’s a fragrant beauty sure to brighten a winter day when planted in a container and enjoyed indoors. The calming fragrance of Spanish lavender can be enjoyed fresh or the stems and flowers snipped, dried and added to bouquets and sachets. Rosemary’s flavor makes it a perfect gift for foodies on your list. And everyone, including non-cooks, will enjoy its fragrance.
Melinda Myers is the author of more than 20 gardening books and host of The Great Courses’ How to Grow Anything DVD series.
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