Plant Presents from Your Own Garden
by Ron Williams

Whether you are looking for ways for you or your kids to provide cheap presents for the extended family, after ways of cutting the bill of Christmas gifts this year, or just like to give gifts which have a personal element to them, here are a few suggestions for you.

If you are looking to make a present for the gardener in the family, someone who has recently moved into their own home, someone in a flat or unit, a person who can't manage a full sized yard, or a family member who loves to cook with fresh ingredients, then why not consider giving them something from your own garden? Specifically, I am talking about plants that you have divided off from your own garden plants.

There are many plants growing in the average garden that can be divided, or that have naturally self-layered themselves. You could take a rooted section, pot it, and with a bit of dressing up of the planting container, you could produce a very nice gift for someone you care about.

These plants include many herbs, as well as perennials or shrubs, and even some trees manage to send out self-layering branches or suckers from the root system. Some perennials or bulbs will increase their size or number of bulbs over time. All of these provide you with an opportunity to cheaply create a wonderful present for someone else.

First, you will need to obtain a number of pots-either plastic ones left over from additions to the garden population, or from someone you know-or you can go out and purchase a pot to suit your needs. If the person you are giving the plant/s to is not a real gardener, then you might consider getting a pot with a waterwell in the base, to increase the odds of the plant surviving.

Next, you need to begin looking for your plant material, so take a careful look around your garden at the soil level. Check out which plants are showing multiple stalks growing out of the ground, sprawling plants where a branch has leaned over on to the ground and taken root, or maybe one where a branch has become buried under the mulch. Plants that have a sucker growing from the soil a short distance from the parent plant are also good candidates. Another possibility are seedlings growing in the garden, a distance from the parent plant material. Perhas there are a clump of plants, or a big patch of bulbs, where you can do some dividing. Many of these plants benefit from being divided up, or being allowed some more growing room in the particular area where you have taken away some material.

Different parts of the world will have a differing range of plant species, which lend themselves to this form of self-propagation. If you can't find any plants that are doing this in your own garden, why not look at a friends or neighbors garden? You could also join forces, and give a joint present using plants from another family garden. Another possibility is to buy a plant in a pot that has several plants already established in it. Divide that up before you use half in your own garden-and you will still have half to repot, and give away. Even if you are not confident about your gardening skills, you can still pick up cheap plants at the local market, school/church fair, garage sale etc. Repot them into a bigger or nicer pot, for a fairly cheap present, or possibly even right up to shrubs and trees, (Including Topiary and Standards or even Fruit trees).

Another possibility is to multiplant a few different plants into a long/large round tub. This will create an instant garden on the move. Some themes you might consider are herbs, indoor foliage, bulbs, annuals, alpine/rock, cacti/succulent, or even patio gardens- mixing some annuals and perennials.

It is best to moisten the ground around the plant that you are going to work on, well before you do the dividing. This allows you to remove the maximum amount of root mass during the dividing process. The first step is to divide the clump, or cut away the joining branch, to make the separate plant available. Using a spade, fork or gardening trowel, dig as far out from the potential plant as possible, since this will give you the biggest root mass allowed. Go down as far you believe you need to; this will depend on such circumstances as size of new plant, species of original plant material, type of soil, other plant or landscaping material around the area. As gently as you can, dig out the new plant. Shake off any excess soil, and refill the hole in the ground, if necessary.

Prune back the foliage of the new plant to roughly equal size of the root mass, trying to protect some of the new foliage growth. Repot as soon as possible, so that the roots do not dry out and die.

Finally, take into consideration is the type of pot you are going to plant in to; if it is only a plastic pot, then you do not need to prepare it beforehand. However, if you are considering painting it, then do this before you get digging.

When painting pots, you will need to do some preparation work for the paint to stick properly. Plastic pots should have their surface roughened up with a bit of sandpaper. Terracotta pots should have a primer applied to the outer surface, before being painted. Try not to get primer or paint onto the inside of the planter, because there are still some paints which contain chemicals that may affect-or contaminate-the soil and plant over time.

Other possibilities for decorating pots include simply gluing on bits and pieces including stones, tiles, buttons, sticks, shells, ornaments, ribbon, stickers and decals. Other ways of decorating a pot for the initial presentation, is to wrap up just the pot (not the actual plant), using wrapping paper, cellophane, material, tea towel or even hessian. Hold these wrappers in place with string, ribbon, bandana, scarf, etc.

Other possibilities for adding value to the potplant is to provide some growing information, and name tags for the plant/s included. Other little things you might add include a personalized name tag (Hi, my name is David the Diffenbachia.), a little watering indicator, miniature hand tools, small amounts of fertilizer, pot ornaments, or watering can, to name a few.

As you can see, creating a very personal gift for just about anyone can easily be within your grasp. Why not go out into your garden, and start thinking about what presents you can be preparing for Christmas this weekend?

Ron Williams is a Freelance writer, as well as a Horticulturalist and Rehabilitation Therapy Aid at a Psychiatric Hospital In Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. He writes regular email newsletters for www.wz.com He also owns a Discussion Group about Australian Gardening at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/austgardens