Gifts for Cooks - Gifts for Gardeners - Gifts - Gadgets - Flowers

For the Cook and Gardener

London Fine Foods

This is an extremely tempting website, where you can order the highest quality olive oil and balsamic vinegar, British and French cheese, caviar, Foie Gras, black and white truffles and truffle oil, spices, mushrooms and champagne. Everything is beautifully photographed with lots of information about every product - where it comes from and what makes it special. The prices here are good, particularly when you consider the quality of what you're buying. They offer gift vouchers as well.

Bradleys The Tannery

Bradleys are an independent leather tannery based in Shropshire and specialising in the design and manufacture of a unique, high quality range of garden, gift, leisurewear and lifestyle products. Everything is hand made in the UK using traditional methods and local craftsman and all the leathers are tanned in-house. If I were a gardener (and I have to confess here that I'm not) I'd definitely want a pair of their unique gloves or leather trimmed topiary shears which come in a range of colours.

Frances Hilary

Here's a wonderful place to find gifts for the gardener in your life produced by a husband and wife team inspired by visits to long established working gardens around the country. The products combine practicality with style and most would make excellent presents although if you're the gardener in your family you'll no doubt want a treat as well. There are beautifully made, classic tools, gloves, aprons and wonderful boots, dibbers, tampers and twine plus carefully thought out gift sets.

Garden Divas - Great Gifts for Glamorous Gardeners

Here's a very pretty website, brightly coloured and perfect for the glamorous gardener. This is an excellent place to find unusual gifts, from handmade garden trugs and coloured handle flowerw shears to scented candles and floral carriers and wellies. A great deal of trouble has been taken here to create a collection you won't find together anywhere else and you may well be tempted to treat yourself as well.

Garden Trading

There's a very wide range of prices here as Garden Trading offer some unusual pieces of furniture, such as the 'Broomstick Bench', right through to interesting canisters and glassware and the Lisa Stickley collection of cushions, enamel mugs and matchbox covers. There are some suggestions in their 'Gift Ideas' section but personally I would recommend having a browse round the whole site as there's lots to see.

Gift Inspiration

Based in Wiltshire this online retailer offers an excellent gift delivery service. They have a very good selection including gifts for babies, gourmet hampers, (think The French Hot Chocolate Pot gift set and chocolate truffles with champagne) pampering gift boxes and ideas for men plus lots more. If you need a gift in a hurry I would definitely have a look here as they offer all the right services – gift wrapping including your personal message and express delivery.

Handpicked Collection

Handpicked Collection is a beautifully designed gift shop offering a clever collection of present ideas selected by their 'expert panel' of stylists, journalists and presenters whose mission has been to find gifts that are just that little bit different. There's a wide selection of unique gifts for indoor and outdoor living, presents for children and very good suggestions for weddings.

John Lewis - Homewares, Toys, Beauty, Accessories, Gifts for Everyone

The John Lewis website just goes on getting better and better, and there's very little you can't find there. It's great at any time of year and wonderful at Christmas, when you can order men's accessories, beauty products, wraps, belts, jewellery, knitwear, home accessories, cameras, audio equipment and so much more.

You'll have to wrap everything yourself, but for this amount of choice in one place it's worth ordering here.

Sale Now On

Plantstuff

This is not as it sounds to me - a plant website - but a great place to find lifestyle products and gardening gifts. It's beautifully laid out and easy to navigate and you can buy braziers and hammocks, candles in metal pots, slate cheeseboards, lead ducks and Hunter clogs and wellies. There's also an wonderful gardener's hamper although most gardeners would almost certainly have some of the items included already. Returns are free.

Redwood Bay - American and International Homewares and Speciality Foods.

Redwood Bay specialises in bringing US and European brands into the UK who currently don't ship here, such as Williams Sonoma, Restoration Hardware and Blue Crab Bay.

This is a seriously attractively designed website where you're bound to be tempted by accessories and gifts such as Stonewall Kitchen's home fragrance, Riviera Maison's cappucino mugs and Napa Valley olive oil spritzers. They also have beautiful and reasonably priced Christmas specialities in season.

Special Offer - 10% off when you quote 'siteguide' at checkout.

Richard Bramble

Ok, now for some quite unusual ideas for gifts for weddings and other celebrations. Artist Richard Bramble has created a range of unique tableware from wonderfully fishy plates and bowls to tablemats and clocks, plus his original paintings and prints, all of which you can buy online. As I personally would love to be given something by him (kids are you listening?) you should have a good look round.

Rick Stein

You may well have heard of Rick Stein – eaten at his restaurant in Padstowe if you’re very lucky or bought or cooked from one of his many excellent recipe books. Now on his online shop you can order the items in his cook shop such as cooking utensils and original tea towels; send one of his hampers as a gift, buy his Chilli Chutney, tapenade or home made Florentines, choose from his personal wine selection or buy Gift Vouchers. There’s a really good collection here and some great gift ideas for the cook, but of course only if he or she likes fish.

Simply Roses

There are perfect gifts here for anyone who loves roses and also being pampered as this is a hand-picked collection of luxurious rose-inspired products, each one selected to compliment the natural beauty of a Simply Roses bouquet (which you need to call them to order). Online you can choose from rose scented foaming bath oil, candles and prettily packaged soaps, pomanders, savon de Marseilles and bath truffles. At the moment you need to send a cheque with your order.

The Camouflage Company

The Camouflage Company offers a unique and attractive range of beautifully designed 'practical meets stylish' shopping bags, carriers, boxes and panniers. They also offer clever covers and accessories for your garden, from unusual hammock, bbq and table covers to patterned coolbags, fold-out trays and tool belts. This is an excellent place for shopping, carrying and garden accessories and also for gifts for gardening enthusiasts.

The Gluttonous Gardener

Beautifully packaged and hand tied with raffia, this is a wide selection of well photographed gifts for any of your friends who like to garden and eat as well. So you'll find sloe gin accompanying young sloe trees, a bottle of Macon with a white grape vine and champagne with terracotta pots planted with sage, thyme, oregano and rosemary. This really is an excellent website for gifts and something just that little bit different.

The Royal Horticultural Society

For anyone interested in gardening, membership of the Royal Horticultural Society is a must, not least for entrance to the Chelsea Flower Show, but also for the many other shows, free entry to all their recommended gardens, advice from the Wisley Advisory Department and access to seeds from their annual Seed Distribution Scheme. Online you can become a member or give the gift of membership and also access their beautifully photographed plant selector.

Trees Direct

Fruit and nut trees, ornamentals and aromatic, evergreen bays are just some of the unusual gift ideas you can find here. The trees are chosen for their colour, blossom, shape and size to suit all types of gardens and patios and they arrive dressed in a hessian sack tied with green garden string, planting instructions and hand written message card. You can request that your tree arrives on a specific date and if you want advice just give them a call.

World of Roses

Yes this is the place to find the most outstanding roses of all varieties, from climbing and floribundas to ground cover and hybrid tea varieties, however don't expect to find your standard hand tieds here as these are gorgeous roses for planting in your garden. You can order them in pots, bare root or gift wrapped and select the date that you want them delivered. If you want something totally unique you can name a rose here as well.