4 great gifts for gardeners

Hand lotion. Gardeners can be a frugal lot, except when it comes to buying plants. In the offseason, though, what else can we spend our money on but luxurious hand cream? Crabtree & Evelyn sells Gardeners Hand Therapy for $22 - for you or a gardening friend.   - Virginia A. Smith

Founding Fathers: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation by Andrea Wulf (Alfred A. Knopf, $30) is an entertaining, scholarly, and revelatory look at our earliest presidents, their passion for gardening, and how it shaped the nation's history. Really.    - V.A.S.

Wreaths. Laurel Hill Gardens in Chestnut Hill makes these fabulously fresh holiday wreaths that sell for $49 to $89. They can be personalized with dog, cat, and horse figures, even Phillies hats and golf clubs. Best of all, they don't sit in cold storage for months, as so many in the catalogs do. And they're made of long-lasting cedar and fir.   - V.A.S.

Royal Wardian Case. Invented by physician Nathaniel Ward in 1829, the high-humidity Wardian case made it possible for plants to survive shipment around the world. It also was the precursor of the modern terrarium. Logee Tropical Plants in Danielson, Conn., sells this tabletop version, with a lift-off top, for $169.95. For an additional $34.95, you get a collection of plants to put inside it, including the hard-to-find Selaginella erythropus 'Sanguinea' or ruby red club moss.    - V.A.S.