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If I had been on the ball I would have made all of my Christmas presents by now. Hypertufa troughs for everyone!

But since I only had that idea yesterday, there’s no time now for the cement to cure before the 25th. Maybe next year. Time is tight for making terrariums, too, and besides I probably shouldn’t give those out every year because I don’t want anyone to get bored. (Maybe that’s not possible?) It’s getting harder and harder for this gardener to come up with the ideal gift idea for everyone on my list.

A hypertufa planter really would be the perfect thing for all but my favorite apartment dwellers. Hypertufa is a cement mixture meant to mimic real tufa, which is a porous limestone and the ideal container material for high pH-loving mountain alpine plants or any other set of sweet and hardy little plants that might otherwise get lost or trampled in our gardens. The great thing about hypertufa is that it can remain outdoors over the winter and the plants we gardeners usually love seeing in them are the ones non-gardeners never have to fuss over: succulents like hens and chicks and any assortment of tiny stonecrops.

Making hypertufa containers is easy, if messy. One simply requires the space to mix one part Portland cement with 1.5 parts each of peat moss and vermiculite (or perlite), a handful of reinforcing fiber and enough water to make snowball-able mud. One also needs molds such as a well-taped cardboard box with another slightly smaller for the inside walls; a plastic dustbin or tub-trug with a smaller version for the inside; or an assortment of jello molds and plastic cups. All of the plastic or metal molds need to be well-greased with oil or lined in plastic bags so that the cement, after hardening for a couple of days, will release from them. After that, the containers may cure for weeks or months before planting. Or if you decide to tackle this project just in time for the spring and summer birthdays, you could probably plant the trough immediately.

Anyone who might expect to receive a present from me this Christmas should stop reading now so that I can confess that I might have to resort to terrariums again after all. But they’ll be different this year because I have rediscovered air plants. One of the first houseplants I ever bought was a type of Tillandsia, a branch of the bromeliad family that doesn’t require soil — or much water for that matter. It came glued to a magnet and bloomed on my fridge.

Air plants are all the rage again but now they’re meant for display in delicate glass globes and balanced in seashells looking as animate as a hermit crab in a tide pool. They’re de rigueur among the tragically hipster and I’m perfectly willing to assume that because I suddenly covet them madly, everyone must.

So, I have been scouting the resale shops and seashell stores for the perfect display containers. An open terrarium would be best because they require higher humidity than our furnace-dry houses but also need good air circulation to keep from rotting. So long as we’re willing to soak them in water every few days and spritz them now and again, they’re also fine in a dish, sitting at the mouth of a vase, perched in a quahog shell, dangling from a loop of string, or glued to a magnet.

I’ve always followed the rule that the best presents are the ones we wish we could keep, but I have to admit that giving plants is tricky. Not everyone on a gardener’s list is as interested in plants or as confident about their ability to care for them as we are. The only way around it is to hope that the trendy fabulousness of our gift is enough to inspire any little spark of interest its care requires. And who knows where that might lead. (Right alongside us down the garden path perhaps?)

Kristin Green is the interpretive horticulturist at Blithewold Mansion, Gardens & Arboretum in Bristol. She has worked at Blithewold since 2003 and has written their garden blog (blog.blithewold.org) since 2007.