At this time of year, your local garden centre isn't just about gardens - it has probably transformed itself into a complete Christmas emporium!

Every aspect of gardening, from the humblest pot plant to the fanciest of garden furniture, has now been re-packaged and presented as a potential Christmas present.

And many garden centres have branched out further. They now have food departments with cakes, biscuits, jams, pickles, amd festive grottoes full of decorations, Christmas trees and glittering lights. Some even have life-size model reindeer and cuddly polar bears!

Even so, garden centres do have some alternative ideas for Christmas, and also a wonderful selection of "old favourites".

They can be a great place to take the children shopping, because there are many inexpensive gifts and stocking fillers in the lower price ranges. There are plenty of presents for non-gardeners too.

Denise Johns of the Abbey Garden Centre at Titchfield finds that potted indoor plants are among the all-time "best sellers" for Christmas.

"As well as these, we find that garden tools are very popular and so is outdoor clothing such as boots, gloves, waterproofs and fleeces.

"Once you have used stainless steel garden tools, you will never want to use anything else, so we sometimes suggest that they would make a welcome present.

"This year, we also expect to sell a lot of the new, pot-grown millennium roses."

Gardeneing books and terracotta items also make good gifts and if you cant think what to buy for a keen gardener, you can be sure that they would like a gift voucher.

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