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Garden Help Desk: Picking the right gifts for mom’s special day

By USU Extension - | May 6, 2023

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Nurseries, garden centers and even grocery stores have a nice selection of potted plants for Mother's Day shoppers.

Warmer weather has finally arrived, and Mother’s Day will be here soon. Flowers are always a nice gift, but how about something different this year? Could one of these ideas make the perfect gift for your gardening mom or grandma?

There are lots of gifts that your mom might enjoy. The kind of gift you choose will depend on your mother’s age the kind of gardening she does.

For younger, busy moms, the most helpful gift might be some “yard work coupons” that she can redeem when she needs help getting the weeding, tilling or planting done.

If you’d like to get something for a mom whose reached her grandma years, consider giving her the gift of your help plus the pleasure of your company with a coupon for a gardening morning or afternoon where you will come and work in the garden alongside her while you visit.

Great-grandma aged mothers might appreciate a trip to the nursery where you will help her choose some pretty, annual bedding plants to be used for a “Garden work party” that you organize with other family members. Having her flower beds cleaned out and replanted with some colorful foliage and pretty flowers is a gift she’ll enjoy all season long. Even mothers who live in condominiums will have a little flower bed that needs some attention now and then.

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A pretty cache pot can turn an ordinary houseplant in a nursery pot into a beautiful piece of living decor.

Has your gardening mother been thinking about adding another tree to her landscape? Planting a tree could be another nice gift for her. Take a trip together to the nursery and help her select a tree, then bring it home and plant it for her.

Does your mom or grandma enjoy touring public gardens? A pass or even an annual membership to a nearby public garden might be the perfect gift for her.

Some of us have mothers who are in assisted-living centers. For these moms, a small potted plant could brighten up her space. There are several indoor plants — such as pothos, spider plant, snake plant or succulents — that do well in many different settings and tolerate a little neglect now and then.

A pretty cachepot would be a nice gift for a mom who already has a houseplant. She can tuck the plain nursery pot into the decorative cache pot.

Another gardening gift that is nice for moms who can’t actively garden outdoors anymore is a gardening calendar with pictures of flowers and gardens or perhaps a print or poster featuring a public garden or landscape.

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A lightweight UPF shirt or wide-brimmed hat can protect a gardening mom from heat and sunburn.

Of course, there are some traditional gardening gifts to choose from, too.

New kneeling pads are always nice, and for older gardeners there are even kneeler/benches with hand bars that make it easier to get down and back up from the ground.

Garden gloves wear out over time, so your mother might be ready for a colorful new pair.

Sturdy new tools are another possibility. If you decide to get your mom a new trowel, hand cultivator or weeder, choose something that is durable and well-made. You’ll also find hand tools with wider, softer handles designed especially for gardeners with arthritis.

A garden tool organizer for her garden bucket or even a rolling tool organizer is a nice way to keep her hand tools close by while she works in the garden.

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No matter where your mom or grandma lives, there's probably a lovely public garden not far away.

A nice bound garden journal is a welcome gift for gardening moms who like to keep track of what they do in their garden and how their new ideas and new plantings worked out.

The sun can be pretty intense here during the summer, so you mom might like a new wide-brimmed gardening hat to help her keep cool and protect her from the sun. Or maybe a lightweight shirt with UPF sun protection if she sometimes works out in the yard during the sunny part of the day.

And of course, as a last-minute gift, if you know that your mom has a favorite local nursery, online seed company or spring bulb company, consider giving her a gift card that she can use. She’ll enjoy browsing before her purchase and then enjoy her garden later when her purchases are planted in her landscape.

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