Though I own a shop devoted to everything garden, I would not advise a gift for the garden tended by that passionate gardener on your list. Though you may already be rolling your eyes skyward,  I have ample evidence and experience in this regard-on both sides of the aisle.  Just yesterday an older gentleman came in the shop looking for a stand for his 14 inch stainless steel gazing globe/sphere.  He felt my first suggestion was too small.  My second suggestion would not be sturdy enough to withstand the wind off the lake.  My third suggestion would rust, and might impact the surface of the steel.  My fourth suggestion, a round hollow limestone pillar, was not tall enough.  A tall stoneware column was not a good color with stainless steel.  By no means did I give up after  number five.  We looked at many possibilities, none of which were quite right.  He finally decided he should come back, his sphere in tow.  Can you imagine if his wife, or children attempted to make a Christmas gift of a stand they thought would be perfectly lovely? 

I carry Pollina garden gloves, and Ball and Burgeon garden tools.  Passionate gardeners are especially particular about their tools.  There are those gardeners that make no moves without gloves, and those gardeners who have no use for them.  If you have a big love for a passionately committed glove type gardener, what size would you buy?  Would you choose short gloves, or long sleeved gloves good for dealing with roses? The Pollina gloves I stock are mint green leather.  What if your beloved gardener dislikes leather?  What if there is only one kind of leather they like? What if your gardener prefers olive green?  Or chartreuse?  Or black?  What if their ancient leather gloves are their favorite tool?  What if they have no use for gloves at all?  You see the problem.

My favorite tools are most likely inexplicable to anyone but me.  I love my Mom’s Smith and Hawkins garden trowel, even though my small digging tool of choice is my hands.  I love the memories that come with that tool.  I do not use it-I look at it.  It has dirt on it from her garden-I would not dream of disturbing that.  My second favorite tool is a Niwashi right handed weeder from New Zealand.  I will admit it was a gift from a good friend-a gift that miraculously hit the mark.  My Felco pruners at work have my initials on them-and a “do not touch these” warning.  At home, I have a pair of Arno pruners from France, with leather handles.  I do not need a pair-I like having the pair.  My scissors at work say “not DGW” on the handles.  Anyone who borrows a tool, and does not return it, clean, is pushing it.  My stainless steel spade and fork bought years ago from Smith and Hawkens, are just the right size for me.  The polypropylene handles never splinter, and are easy to keep clean.  A recycled drywall bucket is perfect for weeds; turned up side down, I can stand or sit on it.  A pair of Niwaki loppers with magnolia wood handles have never been used.  They are a sculpture I never tire of looking at.  My collection of tools is eccentric-like every other gardener’s tools. A passionate gardener is opinionated about every aspect of their gardening.  Be sure you want to wade into that.  We stock singing shears for topiary and boxwood at the shop that I think are great.  I would think a gardener will need to decide about them for themselves.

I am a collector, like most people.  My collection of garden books is fairly extensive.  I read my books over and over again.  I have a fairly decent idea of what volumes are there-unlike most everyone else.  It would be very hard to select a garden book as a gift for me. There are few plants that I do not like, but the plants that I would collect are not so many.  I have a dear friend that buys me succulents every year.  I don’t really like them.  I pot them up, put them on my window sill at work, and never water them.  I spent a winter painting auricula primroses; Steve bought me a collection of them for Valentine’s Day.  It was so irritating that I could not get the culture down.  They looked terrible from the day he gave them to me, until the day they died.  This was not a good gift.  I love peonies, roses, and hellebores.  But I want to choose which I would plant in my own garden.  Another person’s idea of a great collection of peonies is another person’s idea.  Don’t pick plants.  Don’t pick a gardening coat, a hat, or muck boots.  Don’t pick a collection of dahlia tubers, or a collection of African violets.  Stay away from trying to gift a passionate gardener in the area of their expertise, or passion.  Gardeners take everything about the garden very personally.  This is not to say you should opt for a vacuum cleaner or mixer-do not do this either.         

So what would be a great gift for a passionate gardener?   Number one on my list-cut flowers.  A bouquet of flowers that a gardener does not have to plant, stake, feed, and fuss over is a beautiful gift. A simple and gorgeous glass, or vintage McCoy vase to hold those flowers is taking that gift of flowers to a loving conclusion.  Any gardener would be grateful for a hand cream that really works-I favor herbacin Kamille with glycerine-Amazon stocks it for 6.95 a tube.  This is a treasure for garden weary hands.  For those gardeners whose fingers split, a pair of thick cotton gloves, and a jar of petroleum jelly is a treatment of choice-warm that petroleum jelly in the microwave, slather it on each hand, put on the gloves, and go to bed.  Those gardening hands will be remarkably better, the next morning.  A 

The video of Audrey Hepburn’s “Gardens of the World” is delightful-16.95 from Amazon.  A subscription to a garden or design magazine is a good choice.  Most gardeners are card carrying fans of the natural world.  What gardener would not want to settle in, rest and read  Fine Gardening, Horticulture, Garden Design, the British Country Living, Southern Living, or  National Geographic?  A magazine that comes every month, with its invitation to sit someplace comfortable a read a little something, is welcome.  A gift completely unrelated to gardening would be great too-it never hurts to remind a gardener that there are other things in this world to do besides dig holes.

Best of all-a gift certificate.  For a tree, or a book.  To a nursery.  To Sneeboer or Niwaki tools.  We do lots of gift certificates this time of year.  How so?  A passionate gardener is a a person with a mission that means a lot to them.  Choose to gently encourage them, or go for broke, distracting them.  We gardeners-we are a bloody nuisance to buy for.

A landscape company in another state rang me up last week. They do a lot of commercial landscape design and installation.  They have a big maintenance division.  They do holiday decorating for commercial clients on a big scale.  They just purchased a 16,000 square foot building which will better enable them to handle this holiday business-that’s how big their business is.  This particular design principal was interested in developing a retail landscape division.  At this point, I still had no idea why he was calling me. 

He got around to that part.  He was interested in whether I would consult with his company.  More specifically, he was interested in the seasonal containers we do for clients.  He liked them.  Could he arrange for his designers to travel to Michigan, so I could make a presentation?  Could he arrange for me to conduct this consultation in each of the four seasons?  My internal reaction was immediate-could I teach about what I do every day?  Could I adequately teach about what I do during a time when I am so busy?  How could I make time for this?  What would I have to say that would matter?  Who are these people?  Would I have time in the course of a day to meet them, understand something about them, and make a contribution?  All the time these questions are swirling around in my head, I am looking at my calender for a date that might work.

There is nothing surprising about this.  I am a designer, but more importantly, I am a person who tries to facilitate the design process. No design goes on, in my opinion,  unless there is a relationship between a design professional, and a client. I routinely see the results of landscape design lacking that relationship.  Those installations may be impossible to maintain.  They may be incoherent.  They may put lots of effort towards an end the client has no interest in.  They may miss the mark.  When I see landscapes that miss the mark, I look to the designer.  Perhaps they have not taken the time to explain a plan thoroughly.  They may not take the time to disagree with a client.  They may not have taken the time to rethink their design, given the comments of a client.  My idea is to take more responsibility than a client-as well I should.  They come to me for help-do they not?  Relationships-this matters much to me.  This person and company from  another state-could I help him?  This colleague-I had the immediate and initial idea to accomodate him. 

Accomodating a client or colleague-why wouldn’t I?  Their issues are my issues.  A client or colleague- should they have notions that I think warrant intervention, a different point of view,  I will voice that.  My point of view, melded with their point of view-this endows any design project with potential. Residential landscape design, well done, respects the individual, the family, the land, the circumstances-so many things influence design.  As for consulting with another firm, would I have anything to offer? 

A few days ago, a woman came into the shop at 3 minutes to close, who had never been here.  She lives in the immediate neighborhood.  For fifteen years, she has driven by the shop, and never stopped.  Who knows what she thought we were!  The holiday lighting outside encouraged her to park, and come through the doors.  I could tell she was having a perfect moment.  We turned up the music-Handel.  We left her alone.  For 40 minutes, she looked, and studied.  I knew from the look on her face that she was experiencing a perfect moment.  We did not disturb her.  She thanked us for keeping the shop open.

Why am I telling this story?  I knew watching this person see the shop for the first time, that I cannot in good faith consult with other companies.  I have no rules, or recipes to offer. This visit from a new client was not anything I can really explain, or quantify, but her visit meant everything about how and why I do what I do.  From my side, my business is about the people who conduct it-their point of view, their creativity, their passion for the garden, their work.  This cannot be transferred to another time, place, or person.  How Rob shops for the store makes the fifteen years he has spent doing so obvious.  Everything he has seen and done for 15 years informs his choices and opinions.  His eye cannot be transferred elsewhere.  There is no one else like him.  Our clients understand and value this in him.  He treasures their interest, and spends the time it takes to respond in kind.  Any client, old or new- we both like the idea of engagement.      

The upshot of the previous discussion-I realize I really do not have one minute to spare, nor the inclination to consult with another company.  I doubt I could help them, beyond suggesting that they focus on representing their own point of view in the best possible way they can.  There is plenty of room for lots of good design.  Good design needs to come from what is within.  I have people and projects that need my attention.  This what I want to do-pay attention to, and interact with, the people who approach me.  What Rob and I do is very personal.  It is about our place.  It revolves around our singular point of view.  We have clients who like this.  This makes for a life.  The group of us, interacting, describes our day. 

 Rob and I have been here every day, for fifteen years.  We have made it a life’s work to make that experience exceptional.  We cannot imagine what it would be like, to walk into the shop for the first time.  Or the fiftieth time.  But we have pinned all of our hopes and dreams on creating that special experience, for anyone who walks through our doors.   This is our story.

Steve walked in at 7:17 this morning, and asked how long I had been up.  Since four am-just like him.  Turning the clock back one hour seems simple enough.  What I once did at 10 am I can just as a easily do at 9-right?  Not exactly.  Getting up at 5 am is routine for me; getting up at 4 am is nuts.  Having lunch at noon seems perfectly ordinary; lunch at 11 am-not so appetizing.  Milo and Howard have dinner at 3:30 every day.  I explained to Milo that the new 3:30 comes an hour later now.  From the look on his face, I am sure he doesn’t get it.  A cocktail at 6pm sounds good; a cocktail at 5 pm-is that pushing it?  Going home from work at 6pm seems fine-going home at 7 seems late.  What time is it, really?  My Circadian clock-biological clock-is not happy with the change-even one hour’s worth of change.  I feel robbed- like I am having to live 24 hours in a 23 hour period.  

I may be sounding like a very fussy baby here, but an hour makes a difference.  If I wake up an hour late, I never catch up all day.  If I wake up an hour early, I peter out more than an hour early.  If I am not on time for an appointment with you, I am not coming.  I have either forgotten, or written the appointment down on the wrong day.  For me, part of being good is being on time.  I do not like going to the movies-they require too many hours in one spot.  I like reading-I can pick the the time and duration.   

Day length can make a big difference- just ask any plant.  They have photoreceptor proteins that make it possible for them to respond to day length.  Some plants like pointsettias need long nights and short days to initiate flowering.  Even a small interruption to their dark sleep can result in a failure to bloom.  Amaryllis have a similar temperament.  The long day short night plants are just as specific in their light requirements-as in dianthus, and campanula.  Day neutral plants-like roses and tomatoes-initiate flowering without regard to day or night length.  Photoperiodism not only influences flowering, but it also affects the growth of stems and roots, and the loss of leaves. Any living organism is specific about what it needs to prosper.  I am sure my biological clock will adjust to the time change eventually, but I will not be blooming any time soon.