What can a plant in a pot for a mother's day gift?

[Stompythedinosaur]

I realise mother's day is a few weeks away.

Due to some unexpected bills we are going to be pretty tight for money the next few months. Normally on mother's day we take dm, dmil and her partner out for lunch and give dm and dmil a bunch of flowers. That's not really going to be possible this year so looking for an alternative.

We'll have everyone round to ours for lunch instead, but I was thinking about whether I could get the dc to decorate some terracotta pots that I already have and then plant something in it to give as a gift.

I am a terrible gardener, so I'm not sure if there is something I could plant that will start coming up in a few weeks? Can anyone recommend something?

Thanks for any advice!

Lidl have got quite a few different plants in, as a GM I'd be happy with that, especially if the DC's have decorated the pots

Buy some bulbs - narcissi or muscarinic - and put those in the pots. Get them in plastic pots and you might be able to just drop the plastic pot into the terracotta ones. Don't buy them until much nearer the time. All the supermarkets have them.

Muscari - bloody autocorrect

Sainsburys have some lovely hyacinths in a pot for £2.50. They come in plain cardboard pots that the children could decorate.

I always get my mum an amarylis at Christmas and it grows fairly quickly. They normally come with a pot and soil

Primroses ( or polyanthus)
Young lad down the road has a stall outside his house and sells plants he grows, and ususally does really well with primroses at this time of year. Sometimes he plants them in old teapots or milk jugs( from a charity shop?) and they look really attractive.

This week I bought a heart shaped basket from Home Bargains. I lined it with a bin liner (and cut it down). Filled it with compost and succulents from Wilko at £1.50 each.

Ikea has cheap pots an splats, cacti, succulents etc.

Splats means plants

Thank you for all the ideas! I'd stupidly not thought of buying ready grown flowers and transplanting them into pots.

Hyacinths are perfect: you can buy little plants in Lidl and Aldi that will be just about ready for Mother’s Day.

Daisymay2

That’s a lovely idea. Charity shop China cup and saucer, no more than s couple of pounds, with a colour co/ordinated hyacinth bulb or primrose would lovely. Once the flower’s gone, the cup will remind them of their gift whenever they have a cuppa.
Do the same with candles at Christmas .

Thanks.
Once I had a couple of pots of polyanthus for Mother's Day when the boys were young- I planted them in the garden when the flowers died. They like my garden, and have spread, and spread and hybridised. ( Dare I say I have them as a weed now.....)

I think the lunch itself would be plenty.

Dm and dmil would absolutely be fine with no present, but I'd like to get them something if possible.

I really appreciate the ideas.