When it comes to gifts, gardeners are easy because there are so many things will help them pursue their hobby ranging from $10 or less to as much as your pocketbook will stretch.

Affordable choices include a wonderful house plant, a special tool or a gift certificate from local garden centers or specialty mail order nurseries.

Because there is so much to learn about cultivating plants, most gardeners also love books. But before you buy one that is too general or too complex, you might ask the receiver if there are any gardening books they have wished for but never bought.

To make your task a little easier, I polled some lovers of specific plants to get their recommendations.

Many of the books described can be bought at amazon.com through a click of the mouse at this site.

Recommending a book for cactus lovers is easy for Don Klotwog, president of the Memphis Cactus Society: The Complete Book of Cacti and Succulents, by Terry Hewitt, published by DW ($20)
Klotwog said: It is great.

It’s almost impossible for Chris Spindel to keep her recommendations on fern references to one book. A founding member of the Memphis Fern Society, Spindel is regarded as the area’s most knowledgeable person on all things ferny.

For a general overview of ferns available in nurseries and a guide to selecting and growing them, she likes Ferns for American Gardens, by John Mickel, published by Timber Press.

For the serious fern gardener, she suggests The Fern Grower’s Manual, the revised and expanded edition, by Barbara Joe Hoshizaki (cq) and Robbin C. Moran.

A Natural History of Ferns, by Robbin C. Moran, published by Timber Press ($59.95), is for fern lovers who want cutting edge science so well written that each chapter is like a short story with a fern or ferns as its protagonist, Spindel said.

Mike Chambers, past president of the Mid-South Hosta Society also has a few recommendations.
The Color Encyclopedia of Hostas, by Diana Grenfell and Michael Shadrack (Timber Press $49.95) is his No. 1 choice.

It has wonderful pictures from Mike Shadrack, who was our guest speaker at the Dixie regional meeting in Memphis in 2005, Chambers said. It has hundreds of great photos with comments on each. The forward was written by Prince Charles.

For beginners, he suggests Diana Grenfell’s book Hostas: A Gardener’s Guide to Growing Series, or Paul Aden’s The Hosta Book.

No arms are wide enough to get around all the orchids in the world. With more than 25,000 species and 100,000 hybrids and cultivars, it is the largest and most diverse group of plants.

Fenwick Chappelle, an award winning grower and member of the Memphis Orchid Society, said three inexpensive books distill a lot of information, especially for beginners.

Orchids, A Golden Guide is the least expensive and most geared to beginners. Two others are Simon & Schuster’s Guide to Orchids, by Alberto Fanfani and Taylor’s Guide to Orchids, by Judy White.

All have lots of pictures and general information about taking care of orchids.

Fred Nowak, a member of the Memphis Bonsai Society, has a couple of recommendations for those who want to collect the miniature trees of the Orient.

For beginners, he suggests Bonsai Basics, by Christian Pessy and Remy Samson (Sterling Publishing, $12.95).
For more advanced hobbyists, his nod goes to a two-volume set, Bonsai Techniques I and II, by John Yoshio Naka, published by the Bonsai Institute of California.They are $50 to $60 each from used book dealers at amazon.com.
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For iris lovers, Caroline Nave has a couple of recommendations starting with $1.50 pamphlet, Basic Iris Culture, from the American Iris Society. It can be ordered from AIS website at http://www.irises.org/storefront.htm

The Magic of Irises, by Barbara Perry Lawton, is a book with lots of plant lore and legends and history of irises.

Nave, who is also an accomplished flower arranger, has two book recommendations on that subject:
Creative Floral Design – Step-by-Step, by Carolyn Hawkins and Jeanine Row, published by the Garden Club of Georgia, $35 (http://www.ffgc.org/sales/giftshop.html),
and Basic Floral Design, by the Redbook Floral Service which is now part of Teleflora.

According to author Richard Louv, children today are suffering from nature deficit disorder, a disconnection with the world beyond the interiors of their homes and classrooms.

In his book, Last Child in the Woods, Louv presents documented and anecdotal evidence of NDD and its consequences.

In the book, a fourth grader in San Francisco said he prefers playing indoors because that's where all the outlets are.

So what are the reasons Louv sets forth for the prevalence of NDD.

Time is a big factor. When two parents are working outside the home, spare time is a precious commodity. In modern urban and suburban families, free time tends to be filled with programmed activities such as the endless rush to soccer practices, piano lessons, martial arts classes and the like.

Studies cited in the book point to the benefit of allowing children not only the time to spend exploring outdoors but also the freedom in deciding how to spend it. Louv says building a tree house in a woodsy area with his boyhood pals was an experience that evoked so many positive feelings, he is sorry more kids do nott have similar opportunities today.

When author Sharon Lovejoy came to speak in Memphis, many gardeners left with lots of inspiration and information for turning small spaces into pockets of gardening pleasure.
That pleasure continues when you pick up "Trowell and Error:Over 700 Shortcuts, Tips & Remedies for the Gardener," one of Lovejoy's books.

This dandy handkerchief-sized tome is filled with useful tidbits from bug repelling recipes such as Maggot Martinis, Garlic Soup and Herbal Brew to easy ways to solve storage problems for our gardening paraphernalia.

Here are a couple of gleanings:

* Outfit a terra-cotta pot with an electrical wire and socket and use it as a hanging lamp for a potting shed, garden room, porch or greenhouse.

* Jump start your new compost pile but adding a scoop of finished compost to it. The hungry microbes in the old compost will stimulat the new, sluggish pile and speed up the process of decomposition. Other compost activiators include alfalfa meal, pelletized rabbits food or dry dog food, which are rich in nitrogen.

* If you are bitten by an insect or stung by a bee, press a crushed garlic love or slice of onion directly onto the insect bite. Leave on at least 20 mnutes. These kitchen favorites have anti-inflammatory, counter-irritant and antibacterial properties.

Sharon's other books include "Sunflower Houses: Inspiration from the Garden," and "Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots: Gardening Together with Children."