Last Minute Gift Ideas for Landscape Gardeners

Unique Presents from Garden Centers, Hardware and Big Box Stores

Dec 21, 2008
Georgene A. Bramlage

Potted Geranium with Old Gloves & Tools - ©Fran Linden

Last minute and unique gift ideas are as close as local garden centers, hardware and big box stores. Avant-garde presents include standard as well as contemporary gloves.

Holidays, birthdays and anniversaries come and go. On the other hand, quality work gloves are continually useful and seem to last forever. Both recent and seasoned companies strive to adapt designs to modern work and health situations.

Gloves, assembled of both natural and manmade materials, deliver protection and comfort in contemporary styles in varieties of elegant and whimsical colors.

Wells Lamont

This company, with over a century of glove-making experience, is the world's largest glove maker. They feature glove styles for both gardening and landscape chores.

According to their Glove Guide, they make 120 different styles and types of gloves. Particular tasks or hand actions affect performance and durability of individual glove styles. Wells Lamont styles highly suited for landscape gardening include:

Women's styles in vibrant colors and garden brown and green

Grips® Premium Goatskin and Premium Machine Washable Pigskin & Suede,
Wet & Muddy Conditions Gloves,
Ultimate Grip Goatskin, and
Wally the Wasp Latex Coated Jersey.

Men's styles in traditional colors and safety lime green

Suede cowhide, grain goatskin, and grain pigskin leather palms with heavy-weight material backs and safety cuffs,
Original White Mule® leather palm gloves, and
Chore gloves of polyester/cotton with polyester/cotton lining and knit wrists.

Foxgloves

This is a relatively new company with designs in styles and colors for women. The fit and comfort of 1950s women's dress gloves inspired landscape architect and professional horticulturist Harriet Zbikowski to manufacture garden gloves.

Foxgloves, based on the fifties' glove design, are manufactured, according to website information, of "Invista SUPPLEX® nylon for durability and Invista LYCRA® spandex for four-way stretch…"

Although well fitting, comfortable and highly wearable in high-fashion colors, Foxgloves are not particularly suitable for rigorous chores. They are, however, washable. Current styles include:

Original Foxgloves keep hands and nails clean while long cuffs protect wrists. They are good for light garden chores, outdoor activities that require dexterity and as liners under heavy gloves. The original is also available with an ergonomic thumb design.
Grip features new larger, softer silicone grip ovals for grasping tools or steering wheels. Ultragrip (New Style - 2008) features a synthetic suede palm that handles relatively rough, tough jobs.
Elle extends Foxgloves' comfort and protection from fingertip to elbow. This glove allows wearers to reach into bushes, pick up brush or leaves while remaining unscratched.
Foxgloves Gauntlet combines goatskin leather palm, synthetic suede pads with long lengths and wide cuffs for thorn-resistant long lasting wear.

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