Happy Valentine’s Day dear readers. Tomorrow’s the day. It’s not too late to pick up a gift for that special valentine on your list.
Look for bare-root roses to delight that rosarian in your family. The All-American rose selections for this year and past years are listed online at www.rose.org. Click into the section for Northern California and the Pacific Northwest. I can’t resist writing the names of these selections: about face, crimson bouquet, honey perfume, sunset celebration, day breaker, marmalade skies, cherry parfait, gemini, Fourth of July and carefree wonder. Most nurseries can show you photos of the roses to help you choose the right shade and variety for your special valentine.
Colleen Corners Nursery located at the intersection of Perry Avenue and Sylvan Way has an especially enticing selection of garden tools just right for any gardener. Some of the tools have hand-oiled teak handles. You’ll want to pick up a few tools for yourself while you’re shopping.
Every nursery and garden center in Kitsap County is the perfect place to linger over the pots and containers section. You’ll be amazed at all the choices available. And, if the nurseries and garden centers don’t have something to ring your chimes, I recently have discovered the garden section at Safeway in Silverdale. Tucked into the corner as you come in the door near Hallmark, is a section loaded to the brim with wonderful flower pots. There’s even a sale section. Check the sale section frequently, sometimes it’s meager and other times it’s a veritable smorgasbord of containers for plants.
Gardening gloves are always a welcome gift. Get several different kinds for your favorite gardener. One pair for weeding, one for potting up plants, and a thick leather pair for doing battle with blackberries. At the same time look for color coordinated hand tools, weeding buckets and kneeling pads. The nursery or garden center staff will help you make a selection. Ask them what’s their favorite item. The answer will often help you decide.
A charming publication is “Green Prints — the Weeder’s Digest.” Call toll free (800) 569-0602 or visit www.greenprints.com to order a subscription. Pat Stone, garden editor at “Mother Earth News” magazine created this heart touching and giggle inspiring publication. One reader calls it, “hyacinth for the soul.” This is a quaint and charming digest of writings from noted garden writers and the public. Within the pages gardeners share their innermost yearnings about gardening; but also share foibles and failings, mixed in with humor and a bit of pathos, angst and even curmudgeony cranking too. All thoughts we gardeners can relate to curled up with the digest on a cold winter evening or entirely too rainy spring day.
Trinkets and decorations with a gardening theme are also welcome. Check out the gift shops at Sacks in Kingston, Valley Nursery, Bainbridge Gardens, Bay Hay on Bainbridge, Clear Creek Nursery in Silverdale, Country Nursery and Gardens on Seabeck Highway, Bremerton City Garden Nursery, The Brothers Nursery and Port Orchard Nursery. These are just a few of the nurseries that have gifts for gardeners other than plants. And, if you still can’t find something for that gardener in your life, a gift certificate from your favorite garden shop tucked inside a nice card is a sure bet.
