Last shopping week till Christmas

Last shopping week till Christmas

Last shopping week till Christmas and if you're looking for the perfect present for the gardener in your life there's no better place to go than your favourite garden centre.

If you're a bit stuck over what to choose – here are a few ideas:

Flower shows: Treat your favourite gardener to a feast of fabulous design with a ticket to one of the big RHS shows. The daddy of them all, the Chelsea Flower Show, celebrates its centenary in 2013.

Books: Every gardener likes to while away the dark days of winter curled up with the year's latest gardening books: this year's include James Wong's 'Homegrown Revolution' and Sarah Raven's 'Wild Flowers'.

Plants: Always a tricky one, as gardeners usually have firm ideas about what they like: evergreen shrubs usually go down well, especially if they're winter-scented like Christmas box or Daphne 'Jacqueline Postill'.

Pampering: For gardeners with rugged hands, a rich handcream feeds and smoothes roughened skin, while  a good-quality nailbrush helps prise out that hard-to-reach dirt.

And one for the kids... Know a greenfingered youngster? Child-sized tools look just like the real thing – just a little smaller. A set of rake, spade and fork should keep them muddy and happy for hours.