December 10, 2000|By Karol V. Menzie | Karol V. Menzie,Sun Staff
Winter is hard on gardens, but it may be harder on gardeners. Watching the leaves fall off the trees and shrubs, watching the flowers fade and die, seeing a few bent sticks poking out of the snow.
It doesn't have to be that way. There's plenty for gardeners to do and to dream about while winter grinds on. If there's a potentially depressed gardener on your holiday list, we have just what you need to cheer them up. There's something for every taste and every pocketbook. Shoppers, prepare your lists:
Tools to tulips
Daleet Zighelboim founded her California-based company City Yard for urban gardeners: "This new type of garden can be literal or symbolic," she says, and can exist anywhere from an apartment balcony to an office desk.
If your gardener enjoys getting his or her hands in dirt or smelling fresh growing grass, try the Dirt Bag of potting soil ($5 for 8 ounces) and three bright red 4-inch pots ($20 for the set). Then there's Canned Land, a 16-ounce tin packed with soil and grass seed. Plant the seed in the tin and use the lid for a saucer ($10). Can spring be far behind?
Or, if it's the idea of flowers that appeals, try Petal Push Pins to brighten up a kitchen bulletin board ($5.50 for a set of four to five pins).
Available at stores such as Urban Outfitters and by phone at 800-580-1211, or by Web at www.CityYard.com .
Indoor-outdoor garden objects can warm a winter hearth. Frank's has architectural-salvage-type floral plaques ($12.99), finials (about $20), and wire urn-shaped plant holders (about $30), as well as some beautiful vases that could hold dried or silk flowers now and real ones from the garden later. A gorgeous orange-gold crackle finish urn with an organic shape and four tiny bronzey gold handles, about 16 inches tall, is $35. A ceramic vase in a spare square shape, about 18 inches tall, comes in salmon or ocher, scattered with black speckles (about $29).
Every garden could use an angel -- especially when it's also a soothing fountain. Beckett's Flower Bed Fountains are made of lighter-than-concrete polyresin and can be installed in half an hour. Suggested retail prices range from $69 to $189 at home centers such as Home Depot and mass marketers such as Wal-Mart. Call 888-BECKETT or visit www.888beckett.com nationwide.
Here's a new garden tool that's useful all year 'round. It's called the Garden Keeper, and it's a sort of a Day Runner / Filofax to keep information on garden planning, scheduling, design, resources, notes and to-do lists. There are eight sections, and the Garden Keepers are sold by USDA plant-hardiness zone (Baltimore is in Zone 7).
Maree Gaetani of Gardener's Supply says the book was designed by a customer, Jane Nugent of Wellesley, Mass. "She found some of the books were pretty, but didn't have a lot of information, and the useful ones were hard to carry around."
The 8 1/2 -inch by 11-inch Garden Keeper has a weatherproof nylon cover that zips all around and comes with a weatherproof pen. It costs $49.95. To order, or for a Gardener's Supply catalog, call 888-228-9588, or visit www.gardeners.com / gk2.
Delicate glass ornaments in the shape of flowers can bring spring to your Christmas tree or to a sunny window. The selection at Smith & Hawken includes an orchid, blue hyacinth, amaryllis, hydrangea and paperwhite narcissus. Prices range from $20 to $32. Inch-long ornaments in the shape of raindrops are big sellers this year, says store manager John Schmincke. "They have a sort of antique look. You could use them all year 'round. You can use them with greens, or people are putting them on willow branches." A set of 24 is $16.
To show a devoted gardener your own devotion, you can order a year's worth of flowering plants, in bud and bloom, in 6-inch pots for $299. The local store is at 1300 Smith Ave., 410-433-0119. Or call 800-776-3336 or visit www.SmithandHawken.com
Trellises to Gazebos
Wire in white, rust and black finishes takes on wonderful, fantastical shapes at the Art Gallery Ltd., 5801 Falls Road in Mount Washington. There are lacey oval plants stands about 3 feet long (on sale for $79), white wire children's garden furniture with a table and two chairs ($59), a loveseat, a rocking chair and an adorable little chaise lounge (also $59). Climbing roses would love to scale a garden arch about 8 feet tall ($175) and, finally, there is a white wire gazebo that cries out for clematis, climbing hydrangea or wisteria ($395). Owner Joanne Gunther says, "We stocked them for doll and teddy bear collectors, but they're being bought by gardeners."
