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christmas

Gift ideas for your gardener

Many of the well-known TV gardeners including Alan Titchmarsh, Matt James and Monty Don all have new books out for Christmas, while other specialists concentrate on all aspects of horticulture, from potatoes to orchids.

Here are a few inspirational ideas for the enthusiastic gardener:

The Gardener's Year, by Alan Titchmarsh (BBC Books, £20): This useful guide is categorised month by month, giving practical tips and advice on what you should be doing at any given period in the year, along with seasonal projects, checklists and plants for year-round interest. Watch out for his TV series of the same name coming soon.

Architectural Plants, by Christine Shaw (Collins, £25): This detailed book illustrates how you can brighten up your garden all year round with a huge variety of architectural plants, from spiky agaves and yuccas to dramatic palms and graceful bamboo.

The Potato Book, by Alan Romans (Frances Lincoln, £16.99): Want to know everything there is to know about the potato? This book provides the humble spud's history, an expert guide to potato varieties along with planting and maintenance, harvest, storage and pests and diseases.

RHS Grasses, by Roger Grounds (Quadrille, £25): These hugely versatile plants have become fashionable in recent years and are considered by some to be the keynote plant of 21st century gardening. If you want to know which grasses you should have, depending on your soil, what you want to achieve and design styles, this is the book for you.

Orchids, by Wilma and Brian Rittershausen (Quadrille, £7.99): An ideal stocking-filler for the orchid enthusiast, it provides a fascinating insight into this most elegant flower while showing how simple they are to grow at home.

The City Garden Bible: Simple Solutions For Small Spaces, by Matt James (Channel 4 Books, £20): Matt James, The City Gardener, offers a range of solutions for anyone living in a small urban garden, including how to use plants to block out noise from the road, how to incorporate storage in a small garden and how to make your garden look bigger.

Gardeners' Question Time: Tips And Techniques For Gardeners, by Matthew Biggs, John Cushnie, Bob Flowerdew & Anne Swithinbank (Kyle Cathie, £25): Anyone who listens to the hugely popular radio series should be racing to the shops to buy this and read the answers from the regular panellists to the many questions posed, from planting to pruning, or pond-building to propagation.

The Gourmet Gardener, By Bob Flowerdew (BBC Books, £19.99): This is an extremely practical book offering advice on growing top quality produce, focusing on the author's own favourite varieties of vegetables, fruits and flowers and the ones that will give you the most return on your labours in terms of taste and enjoyment.

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