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Dear houseplant aficionado, has this ever happened to you?
About a week before your birthday (or Christmas or Valentine’s Day), you get a call from your beloved friend to ask what you want for said special occasion. We live in a post-Konmari world, of course, so your friends and loved ones know better than to buy you any old trinket.
Let’s imagine the conversation goes like a little bit like this:
Friend: So what do you want for your birthday?
You: Oh, nothing in particular. I really don’t need anything.
Friend: C’mon, since we’re going out for watery margaritas, I really want to get you something.
You: Oh, if you really want to, you can get me a houseplant.
Friend (rolling their eyes): Not another one! You have so many plants already.
You: Duh, that’s the point.
[some amount of eye rolling might still be going on, but you do your best to ignore it]
The conversation may or may not unfurl like this, but it’s usually along the lines of you saying a houseplant would be a nice present for [insert special occasion here] and the other person thinking you don’t neeeeed another one.
Whether you’re the gift recipient, or the person who insists on buying a gift that doesn’t come in dirt, here are a few ideas that are guaranteed to excite your green-thumbed friends. (Well, we don’t really guarantee anything, you know your friend better than we do, we hope.)
Small gift: a plant pot
Larger gift: a 3D-printed sustainable plant pot made of plants
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Small gift: a ticket to a botanical garden
Larger gift: a one-year membership to a botanical garden
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Small gift: a macrame plant hanger
Larger gift: a how-to weave your own macrame workshop (preferably one that you could attend together).
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Small gift: a botanical illustration
Larger gift: a botanical illustration, matted and framed
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Small gift: a second-hand vintage flower pot
Larger gift: a pottery class
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Small gift: a set of botanical temp tattoos
Larger gift: a real plant tattoo, if your friend is thinking of getting one
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Small gift: herb seeds
Larger gift: a planter full of kitchen herbs
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Small gift: a book about houseplants (here is a list of my favorites) or a work of fiction set in the world of plants (my top 5 here)
Larger gift: a fancy coffee table book about houseplants
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Reproduction of tulip illustrations by Carl Linnaeus sold by Spotted Octopus Shop
Small gift: a box of botanical postcards
Larger gift: a set of postcards printed on seeded paper that you can plant
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Small gift: a decorative door for fairies
Larger gift: a fairy house building kit
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Small gift: a juicy colorful succulent
Larger gift: a luscious black houseplant
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Small gift: a glass vessel for a terrarium
Larger gift: a whole terrarium kit
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Small gift: a hanging planter basket
Larger gift: a small plant shelf
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Small gift: a botanical scarf
Larger gift: a botanical tapestry
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Small gift: a seed bomb
Larger gift: accompany your friend somewhere you can do some guerilla planting
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Small gift: a vintage watering can
Larger gift: a copper watering can
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Small gift: a vintage vessel they could use as a propagation station
Larger gift: a fancy bamboo propagation station
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Small gift: a herbarium or a botanicum
Larger gift: a trip to a nature park where your friend can start collecting specimens to add to the herbarium.
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Small gift: a botanical jigsaw puzzle
Larger gift: a botanical backpack
There you go, we hope we got you out of that gift-giving pickle. Oh, pickles are also excellent gifts!
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