Category Archives: Gifts

Gift Kits for Mother’s Day

Birds, Gardening, Gifts, Store

Don’t forget, Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 12th and time is running out if you were thinking of buying your mother a gift online! Send her a gift that matches her passion – what is she passionate about, other than being your mom? :)

Does your mom love to cook? Does she love to get her hands dirty in the garden? Love to watch the flying creatures in her yard, the birds and butterflies? What about if she doesn’t have a green thumb but still loves plants? If your mom falls into any of those categories, we’ve got you and her covered! Check out the gift kits we put together with your mom in mind – and don’t forget to order by Sunday, May 5th for delivery in time for Mother’s Day!

For the Mom’s that Love to Cook…. 
Herb Growing Kit
9068

For the Mom that Loves to Garden…
Garden Deluxe Collection Gift Kit
8001

For the Mom that Loves to Watch the Birds…
Bird Lover Collection Gift Kit
8007

For the Mom that loves Butterflies…
Butterfly Lover Collection Gift Kit
8003

And for the Mom with a Brown Thumb…
Forever Terrarium Collection Gift Kit
 8010

Check out all of our Mother’s Day Gift Kits on Willard & May and show Mom how much you love her!
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What’s New for Spring?

Gardening, Gifts, Store

Now that spring is making its appearance, we are sure most of you can’t wait to get your hands in the dirt or grill out for the first time. Now that daylight savings has past and we’ve all recouped from springing forward, it gives us the perfect amount of sunlight to be able to do a few things outdoors after work, before it gets too dark out.

And for us, spring also means new items for our Willard & May Outdoor Living Store! We’re excited to share with you our favorites that will inspire you to get out and garden with a potting bench, have a family fire with a chimenea, or welcome your new neighbors over with a cheerful doormat. Check out our favorites below and be sure to browse around our site for more new items!

new-spring13-items

1. Modern Bird Feeder 2. Decorative Butterfly Hook 3. Potting Table 4. Garden Chalkboard Sign 5. Spade and Pitch Fork Water Gauge 6. Vertical Planter 7. Grilling Set 8. Plant Markers 9. Rose Doormat 10. Gardening Stool & Tool Set

Plus, check out our new selection of Garden Chimeneas! This season we are featuring four different styles in which each can be taken apart and made into two pieces + each comes with a metal stand. The pieces easily fit inside each other which helps with shipping and storage. Since it can be shipped in a smaller box, we bounce our shipping costs savings back to you by discounting the price on these new varieties! Plus, if you need to store it over the winter, it will take up less space.

new-chimeneas

1. Black Ivy Chimenea 2. Copper Ribbed Chimenea 3. Green Ivy Chimenea 4. Toscano Ribbed Chimenea

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Green All Year – Faux Terrariums

Gardening, Gifts, Store

You’ve probably heard the phrase “luck of the Irish” – especially since St. Patrick’s Day is this weekend. Upon hearing this phrase, you’d typically think that it means that the Irish are lucky people, when in fact it’s just the opposite. If you look up the history behind that phrase and the Irish, you’ll see that it is not quite good luck they refer to, but that the Irish have particularly bad luck. Ireland faced famine, war, prejudice and had their land taken from them multiple times. However, later on in time, this phrase was also referenced to the times when the Irish came to America and found gold, therefore adding a positive connotation.

If you happen to have the bad “luck of the Irish” when it comes to gardening, you actually may be in luck after all! Keeping plants green (a.k.a. “alive”), does require some hard work. You’ve got to water them, fertilize them, keep pests away, and some of them even need to be cut back regularly. Not to mention some plants only grow in specific environments. So, if you have trouble keeping plants “green” then fake/faux plants are the way to go!

We recently launched a line of faux terrariums, cleverly named “Forever Faux Terrariums” because they will be forever green! If you’ve seen live terrariums and been envious of them, you’ll be happy to know that these Faux Terrariums look and act just like the real ones and you don’t even have to tell people they are fake!

Building a faux terrarium couldn’t be easier! Simply pick out a container. Next,  pick an artificial plant foliage option to place inside and then add a filler option such as rocks or moss. No watering, no cutting back, and no worrying required. You are also in luck because we made an easy to follow step by step How To Guide on Creating a Terrarium. Check out below all the fun options we have + save $5 this weekend only with coupon code: FOREVERGREEN5

faux-fake-artificial-terrariumsTerrarium coupon(1. Bubble Terrarium 2. Square Grass Terrarium 3. Terrarium Lid/Cover 4. Cylinder Terrarium 5. Large Bubble Terrarium 6. Cylinder Terrarium 7. European Terrarium 8. Lotus Terrarium 9. Grass Terrarium 10. Bubble Terrarium)

Not only will these Terrariums stay green forever, they’ll also add some life back into your home. Any interior designer will tell you that adding plants and greenery is crucial to good design. Place a terrarium on a bookshelf, coffee table or use it as a centerpiece for your table. It’s also a good idea to mix a few of them together. Here are just a few ideas to inspire you:

fake-terrarium-1 fake-terrarium-2 fake-terrarium-3 fake-terrarium-4 fake-terrarium-5

No more Irish luck for you and you also no longer have a valid excuse as to why you can’t “grow” a terrarium! And as the Irish say, may the road rise to meet you, which translates to may success be with you!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
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Our Top 5 Gifts for 2012

Gifts, Outdoor Decor, Store

The countdown is on…Only 2 weeks until Christmas! Maybe you’ve been wondering what to get that special garden or outdoor lover in your life. Well wonder no more! We’ve put together our list of our top-selling items this holiday season to help make your shopping even easier. But you’ll need to hurry — orders must be placed by December 16th for delivery in time for Christmas!

top 5 garden gifts

Source List: 1. Rain Chains 2. Amaryllis Trio 3. Cobalt Blue Strawberry Planter 4. Garden Hook 5. Muscari Forcing Kit 

Happy Shopping!

Creative Amaryllis Ideas

Gardening, Gifts, Outdoor Decor

Finding affordable holiday flowers for decorations this time of year is a bit tricky due to the fact the flowers you’d be purchasing are being imported from another (warmer) country.

However, one blooming bulb, the Amaryllis, is an easy-to-grow indoor bulb that adds the perfect elegance and holiday cheer to any arrangement you’re wanting to create. Amaryllis come in multiple colors such as reds, whites, multi-colors and pinks. You can buy them as a kit or just as a bulb and plant inside your own pot. Plus, they are easy to find this time of year – purchase them online, in stores or catalogs.

Now that you are itching to grow an Amaryllis, check out these creative and unique ways of incorporating them into your holiday decor…

amaryllis
Martha Stewart

 amaryllis
Florali


Pinterest


Martha Stewart

Amaryllis
Pinterest

Amaryllis :)
Alexan Events

amaryllis
My Design Dump

Weekend DIY: Potting an Amaryllis

Gardening, Gifts, Weekend DIY

With Halloween done and over, everyone seems to be in the holiday mood, dreaming of Thanksgiving and Christmas. I’ve heard countless people say how they can’t wait until they can listen to Christmas music, watch their favorite holiday movie, and enjoy a nice holiday latte in their holiday cups at their favorite coffee shops. So, why hold back? Let’s jump on the bandwagon and get into the holiday mood this weekend!

Now is the perfect time to pot an amaryllis bulb and get it growing for blooms in time for the holidays. These gorgeous flowers create the perfect centerpieces for your family get-togethers, and even make great gifts! Not sure what an Amaryllis is? Amaryllis bulbs are one of the best flower bulbs for indoor forcing and are typically used for this purpose. Bulbs typically begin to sprout within two weeks of planting in soil without requiring any pre-chilling. The blooms of these large bulbs range in color from white, pink, red, or orange and resemble multiple trumpets in shape. The blooms typically appear within 4-8 weeks of planting and can adorn your house for as long as four weeks!

 

First, you’ll need to pick-up an Amaryllis bulb. Right now you can find them everywhere… online, local retail stores and even at Willard & May. You can buy them just as a bulb and use your own pot and soil, otherwise there are many kits out there that include a nice pot and soil.  Always plant your amaryllis within 2 weeks of purchasing them in order to assure quality (not dried out or not mushy). Also, buy the biggest bulb you can find! The bigger the bulb, the bigger and more numerous the blooms! Take a look at this comparison of two different size bulbs:

Here are the details on how to pot them…

  1. If purchased as part of a kit, place soil disk in the provided pot along with warm water. Allow disk to sit in water for approximately five minutes. The disk will begin to expand as it soaks up the water. As it expands, the soil can be “fluffed” with a fork to fill the pot.
  2. If no soil disk is provided, simply use a nutrient-rich potting soil in any desired pot which is approximately 2″ wider and 2″ deeper than the diameter of the bulb. Be sure that whichever container is used has adequate drainage as these bulbs do not like to sit wet.
  3. Plant the bulb so that the pointed end is up and just protruding from the surface of the soil.
  4. Water well and place in an area of your home which stays warm and receives indirect sunlight.
  5. Continue to provide water on a weekly basis to keep soil slightly moist but not wet.
  6. Set these beautiful blooms out in a spot where everyone can enjoy them – like the counter or an entry way!
Finally, once your amaryllis bulb has bloomed and faded, here are some tips (from the Bulb Blog) in order to get more blooms the following year!

 

Happy Weekend!

 

Father’s Day Gift Guide

Gardening, Gifts

Father’s Day is just a few days away! And when you notice that, you’ll probably panic and think, “What am I going to get Dad this year?” Before the panic begins, take a few minutes to think about your dad and remember some of the good times you had with him. We asked our team “What’s a favorite memory of you and your dad?” And here are some of their replies and a few photos for good measure :)
wm dad tribute

Jenny – “Cleaning the refrigerator…no joke it was an annual tradition that me and my dad did! But we did have a lot of fun fishing together.”

Mel – “My ‘Dadio’ (as I used to and sometimes still do call him) was really the first person who taught me to love listening to music. When my sister and I were little girls he used to dance with us in our play room or let us lay on his chest while we listened to music”.

Krista – “We’d play our own mini Olympics in our yard!”

Nick – “My dad and I always went hiking a lot (Kettle Moraine, Devil’s Lake, middle of nowhere Iowa, etc)…and odds are we’d end up finding a walnut tree with the big green husks, and start playing ‘dodgeball’. Everyone usually ended up with some bruises.”

Vanessa – “Dad would always get me and my sisters roses for our birthdays. We always got the same number of roses for the number of years we were celebrating.”

 

Bill Cosby describes fatherhood as “Pretending the present you love most is soap-on-a-rope.” We’ve all give our dads some interesting gift one time or another – whether it be the tie, the picture you colored or a pet rock. Hopefully you’ve wised up and are looking to get dad a great gift this year, something he can actually use and appreciate. To help you out, we’ve put together this list of outdoor-related Father’s Day gifts for you…
gift ideas for dads fathers day
(1. LP Gas Fireplace with Slate Mantel 2. Rectangle Premium Umbrella 3. Bird Hose Holder 4. Foot Planter 5. Cast Iron Bird Bath and Feeder 6. Boot Drying Rack 7. Belize Woven Dining Set 8. New Orleans Table Lamp Heater)

Mother’s Day Gift Guide

Gardening, Gifts, Outdoor Decor

Mother’s Day is coming up – and we have a question for you! What do you love most about your mother? Maybe it is the way she loves you unconditionally or that she will always support your decisions. Or is it that she’s your best friend? What about that sixth sense of her’s – that she knows everything? Throughout the many seasons of life, the reasons why you love your mother may change but one thing remains the same: no matter how old you are, mother’s still love to feel appreciated – and you should never stop showing her how much you care.

We’ve put together this handy Mother’s Day Gift Guide for you to make shopping for her a bit easier this year! Whether she likes to garden, host outdoor parties, or just enjoy a quiet evening on the patio, we’ve got some great gift ideas for that special lady in your life.

(1. Herb Dryer Rack 2. Butterfly Hanging Basket 3. Chalkboard Herb Pots 4. Vine Planter 5. Butterfly Pot Holder 6. Outdoor Hook 7. Key Hinder)