3 Giftable Plants for Budding Gardeners

It’s the holiday season and gift giving is in full swing! If you’re looking for the perfect gift for someone who is just discovering their love of growing plants, you’ll find three excellent recommendations here. 

When choosing a plant to gift to a budding gardener, you’ll want to balance practicality and likelihood of success with uniqueness. Too challenging and they might give up on their first try. Too ho-hum and they could lose interest. 

With that in mind, let’s explore three types of plants that meet the happy medium of being totally rad and perfectly practical. 

Growing perennial hibiscus like Summerific^® ‘Edge of Night’ is a confidence builder for budding gardeners.

Summerific^® Perennial Hibiscus

When a plant grows an inch per day – literally! – you feel like your gardening thumbs are glowing green. That’s what you will experience with the collection of Summerific perennial hibiscus varieties, also known as rose mallow. They grow like gangbusters and produce some of the largest flowers of any perennial, measuring up to nine inches across. 

Though they look tropical, Summerific perennial hibiscus is very cold hardy down to zone 4 while also being highly heat tolerant, thriving through zone 9. Find a sunny spot that sees at least six to eight hours of sun per day and is within reach of irrigation. These plants do not like to dry out. By late summer, they will be the highlight of the garden, persisting in bloom well into autumn.

Superbena^® verbena, Truffula^™ Pink globe amaranth, Supertunia Vista^® petunias and Rockin’^® Playin’ the Blues^® salvia are all easy annuals for budding gardeners.

Low Maintenance, Versatile Annuals

Look beyond run of the mill, seed grown annuals when gifting flowers to a budding gardener. They look beautiful at first but tend to fizzle out when they go to seed by midsummer. 

Instead, opt for long blooming annuals that don’t require their spent flowers to be pinched to keep their color well into autumn. All those pictured here are terrific examples. They grow beautifully in landscapes and containers, plus they will draw in butterflies. 

Many long-blooming annuals that flower prolifically, including those pictured here, need plentiful sunshine to bring on all those buds. If low maintenance shade plants are needed instead, opt for Surefire^® begonias, Rockapulco^® double impatiens or ColorBlaze^® coleus. 

Hydroponic leafjoy^® H2O^® bottle gardens are the easiest houseplants you can grow, which makes them perfect for gifting. 

Hydroponic leafjoy^® H2O^® Houseplants

Skip the box of chocolates this year. Teachers, service providers, friends and family will all enjoy receiving a unique leafjoy^® H2O^® hydroponic houseplant. They are the easiest houseplants you can grow, requiring nothing more than being topped off with fresh water every few weeks as it evaporates from the glass vessel. No window is needed (or even recommended) to grow these unique houseplants; bright indirect light is perfect. And since they’re in stores year-round, they should be easy to find for the holidays.

Remember, gift certificates to local garden centers always make great gifts. Share the advice you learned here along with plant money in a card – no gift wrap required! 

Looking for more gift ideas for budding gardeners? Check out these resources:

• Article: 10 Best Annual Flowers that are Easy to Grow
• Idea Board: Workhorse Plants: Little Effort, Big Impact
• Pinterest: Gift Ideas for Gardeners

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Patent Information: Summerific^® 'Edge of Night' Hibiscus USPP34359 CanPBRAF; Truffula^™ Pink Gomphrena pulchella USPP31728 Can6276; Rockin'^® Playin' The Blues^® Salvia longispicata x farinacea USPP29604 

Contributor Bio: Susan Martin is an avid zone 6 gardener and content creator who enjoys spreading her passion for plants to others across North America.

All images courtesy of Proven Winners.