Gifts for the special gardener in your life

To use

Well-made, long-lasting garden tools always make a welcome gift. Classics include the De Wit Weed Popper (€17, howbertandmays.ie); ARS K900Z Telescopic Hedge Clippers (€90.00 , fruithillfarm.com); Niwaki garden snips (€20, howbertandmays.ie); Felco loppers (Model 22, €350, mrmiddleton.com) and the Haws Fazeley Flow, a perfectly balanced copper watering can (0.7L, €54, thegarden.ie).

For those with wildflower meadows to maintain, Fux’s handcrafted Austrian scythe from Fruithill Farm (wooden handle/snath from €84.86, blades from €66.96, whetstone €20.10 and holder €10.14, fruithillfarm.com) is the wonderfully noiseless alternative to the modern strimmer. Anything that makes propagation easier is also a winner, from the teeniest lean-to glasshouse that allows the gardener in your life to cultivate plants under cover (Ida Wall Mounted Greenhouses from €289, quickcrop.ie), to an electric propagator with grow lights guaranteed to get the ball rolling in even the darkest and coldest of Irish springs (Vitapod thermostatically-controlled propagator with grow lights, €345, quickcrop.ie).

To stay warm and comfy

Genus’s range of Warm and Dry Gardening Trousers

Rouchette’s range of rubber garden shoes and boots are light, warm and comfortable (from €31.99, sportsden.ie), while you can’t go wrong with Niwaki’s classic gardening gloves (howbertmays.ie €8.50) or a pair of properly protective professional knee pads (fruithillfarm.com €44.99); UK-based Genus’s range of Warm and Dry Gardening Trousers aren’t cheap but they’re reliably waterproof, warm, breathable and quick-drying, with padded knees, stab-resistant pockets for sharp tools and a raised waistband for back protection (£145.95, genus.gs).

For something stylish

FIAM’s bistro table and two folding chairs

Le Laboureur’s denim work dungarees (order a size up for ease of movement, €87.12 from lablousedelyon.com ) are the bee’s knees, as is Irish-design label Abito’s smart denim work overall with plenty of pockets, hooks and zips to easily store garden tools (€240, abitolive.com). Elegant zinc planters, tubs and troughs from Laois-based antiques and ‘gardenalia’ expert Dee Brophy (from €45, deebrophy.com) have a timeless quality that means they look as good in a country garden as a smart city plot. Combining good looks with durability and affordability, FIAM’s bistro table and two folding chairs (sold as a set) wouldn’t look out of place outside a chic Parisian cafe (€300, howbertandmays.ie).

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To inspire

Do it in style with a fully guided tour of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show (May 20^th-22^nd), headed up by professional gardener Iain MacDonald of the Travel Department (from €1,069 pp including B&B, traveldepartment.com); or kick off the 2026 gardening season with a ticket to next year’s annual Snowdrop Gala (January 24^th) in Ballykealey House in Co Carlow, with guest speakers including distinguished nurseryman, plant breeder and plant collector John Massey of Ashwood Nurseries in the UK and Callum Hallstead, head gardener of Cambo Garden in Scotland plus specialist nursery plant sales on the day (tickets from €125, see altamontplants.com). Sponsor the planting of a native tree or even a patch of forest, and in return, the not-for-profit project Reforest Nation provides a certificate, GPS co-ordinates, seasonal photos and video updates along with an invitation to visit (from €25, reforestnation.ie).

To indulge

Irish botanical artist Mary Dillon is running a week-long immersive botanical art retreat next year (July 18th-25^th) at Atelier Clos Mirabel in southwest France, a very luxurious treat for the artist-gardener in your life (from €1,895 plus tuition fee, marydillonbotanicalart.com). Or how about sweating it out in a Finnish-style wood-fired barrel sauna designed to fit neatly into most gardens (from €6,495, quickcrop.ie).

To learn

One-year-membership of the Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland is the gift that keeps on giving and includes a marvellous range of talks, lectures, workshops, garden tours, open days, free/half price admission to its partner gardens, plus a copy of the society’s journal, from €60, see rhsi.ie. The Irish Garden Plant Society also proudly waves the flag for Irish horticulture; one year membership entitlements include garden visits, lectures, workshops, seed swaps, plant sales and its journal Moorea (from €25, see irishgardenplantsociety.com). Organic gardener Tanguy de Toulgoët runs a top-notch range of courses throughout the year from his home and garden outside Durrow in Co Laois, where he covers everything from starting a garden from scratch to beekeeping and sustainable food growing (from €63.60, dunmorecountryschool.ie). A one-year subscription to The Irish Garden magazine costs just €40 and includes oodles of expert, Irish-climate appropriate advice by many of the country’s leading gardeners (seven issues per year, subscribe.garden.ie). Taking place one day a month over 10 months, Jimi Blake’s in-person Plants Person Course combines hand-on learning at his exceptional garden Hunting Brook near Blessington in west Wicklow with visits to notable gardens and expert guest lectures (€1,200, starts February 2026, huntingbrookgardens.com).

To nourish

Tipperary-based Brookfield Farm’s Beeswax Gardeners Hand Salve is blended with lanolin, almond oil, grape-seed oil, cocoa butter, Vitamin E and a little raw honey to care for work-weary hands (€10, brookfieldfarm.com), while its botanically scented pure beeswax candles, hand-poured on the farm, are guaranteed to soothe and refresh (from €36).

To nurture

Dublin-based The Garden’s ‘Box of House Plants’ (from €40, shopthegarden.com) is perfect for even the most space-challenged gardener. Kitchen gardeners will love Cork-based Brown Envelope Seeds Undercover Gardening Gift Box (€35, brownenvelopeseeds.com), containing 10 packets of organically produced seed of varieties of vegetables selected by founder-owner Madeline McKeever for their suitability for growing in an Irish greenhouse or a polytunnel. Anyone for figgy pudding? Give them the gift of a fig tree and you could be in luck (Ficus ‘Two Timer’, €20, mrmiddleton.com).

To enjoy

Designed so that cut flowers can be arranged in a way that suggests the natural beauty of a wildflower meadow, Superfolk’s glass and brass Petal Vase is a thing of beauty (€240, superfolk.com). A one-year subscription to the UK’s Gardens Illustrated magazine, edited by Irish garden writer Stephanie Mahon, which “shines the spotlight on remarkable people, plants and spaces in the gardening word every month”, is always a delicious treat (€92, 13 print issues by post, ourmediashop.com).