Gardening is all about planning ahead and now is the time that gardeners all over the UK will be browsing through catalogues and going on the Internet to check just what they want to show in their gardens next year.

What will it be? flowers, shrubs, vegetable plants, a well planned garden can be ‘eye candy' and produce vegetables for a family, which is especially useful when prices are rising like there is no tomorrow.

This time of year of course we want to get our garden bulbs, chosen and purchased ready for planting, most gardens will take on a spring blanket of colour and beauty with daffodils, crocuses hyacinth, tulips, all popping their heads up to welcome the spring sunshine.

September is also the time to plant Christmas plants to give as gifts. Plant bulbs in a decorative pot and offer it as a gift, it will be much appreciated and the bulbs can be taken out of the pot when the blooming time is over, dried, and stored to plant again next year; it is almost like an everlasting gift.

Christmas is a wonderful time for the giving of gifts and we strive each and every year to think of something different. What could be more different than perennial plants, such as a small tree, that can be transplanted into a garden and will give pleasure for years to come, even lavender plants make a wonderful gift, this is a plant that is so versatile and has much to offer from its fragrant blooms.

There are thirty nine species of flowering lavender and are distributed across Africa, Arabia, SE India, SW Asia, Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Europe and the Mediterranean, also in other parts of the world.  The Lavender plant is thought to have originated from Asia, and is now one of the most popular plants that almost every garden will want to lay claim to.

Researchers have found that when the scent is inhaled it has a soothing, sedative and calming effect, this scent comes from the oil retained in the small blue violet flowers.  Lavender is considered to be an herb, and the flowers of the plant are beneficial for a number of ailments which include post operative pain, alopecia and more, sufferers of alopecia found when using a solution of lavender oil massaged into their scalps experienced re-growth after a few months of use.  The plant has shown to have antiviral as well as antibacterial properties.

Researchers have proved that people massaged with essential lavender oils felt more positive and less anxious, also people that suffer from dementia were found to be less agitated when massaged with this oil.

A spokesman for Blooming Direct speaking from his nursery on the Island of Jersey said, "we can offer the online shopper the tools to choose exactly what they want, and offer the Plant Finder tool, this allows the customer to search for garden plants by type, colour or season, and will help you find plants suited to sun levels, soil types, orientation and garden locations.  Of course Christmas plays a part in the buying of flowers and plants, and offer gifts that are different, such as hanging basket plants planted up and given as a gift for indoors over the Christmas period, different or what".

For further information visit:  www.bloomingdirect.com or you can visit their Facebook page to discover more offers.