Burgon & Ball Asteraceae Design RHS Gift Gardening Gloves

The Asteraceae family is one of the most diverse and rewarding plant groups in the cottage garden — and one of the most important for late-season pollinators:

• China asters and coreopsis are the signature flowers in the print, with their bright, daisy-like blooms in pinks, oranges and yellows
• The botanical illustrations are hand-picked from the RHS Lindley Collections, c.1810 — the kind of antique botanical art that costs serious money in framed prints
• The soft sage green background grounds the jewel-bright flowers and stops the design from feeling busy
• The whole effect is celebratory rather than fussy — the resilience and radiant colour of late-season cottage garden flowers, captured on something you'll actually use

It's the kind of design that gets noticed — by visitors who admire your gloves, and by you on the small daily moments when a beautiful object brings a small lift to ordinary work.

Beautiful design is no use if the gloves don't function. Burgon & Ball have built genuinely thoughtful working features into these:

• Cushioned palm — proper protection for everyday garden work, reducing hand fatigue during longer sessions
• Gathered wrist — close-fitting cuff that keeps soil, mulch and small debris from finding their way down your sleeve
• Soft yet tough fabric with built-in stretch — flexible enough for fiddly tasks like deadheading and tying, durable enough to take repeated use
• Snug, flexible fit — moves naturally with your hand rather than sliding around as you work
• Machine-washable at 30°C — significantly more practical than most workwear gloves. Pop them in with the next dark wash and they come out fresh for next time

That last point is worth dwelling on. Most gardening gloves can't go in the washing machine — the construction or coatings can't take it. These can, which means they stay looking nice rather than gradually accumulating a season of soil into the fabric.

These are a universal women's fit, size 8.5 — equivalent to a UK women's medium. They suit average to slightly broader women's hands, and many smaller men's hands as well thanks to the stretch fit.

If you have particularly small hands or particularly broad hands, the Briers range may offer a more precise fit. But for most women's hands, the universal sizing here works comfortably.

This is one of the loveliest gardening gifts you can give someone — practical enough to be used, beautiful enough to be appreciated, and rooted in proper horticultural heritage rather than novelty. Particularly thoughtful for:

• A gardening friend with an eye for the beautiful — anyone who chooses kit on aesthetics as well as function will love these
• Mother's Day, birthdays, Christmas — perennially difficult gift moments solved with a properly thoughtful piece of garden kit
• A new gardener just starting out — these say "this is going to be lovely, take your time"
• An older gardener who'd rather be given something pretty than something purely functional
• A friend grieving a garden companion — the late-season pollinator illustration carries quiet meaning for anyone who values the bees and butterflies
• Pair with a packet of cottage garden seeds for a complete small gift

Particularly natural to pair with the matching British Meadow Snips or the British Meadow Trowel & Fork Gift Set — three RHS-endorsed pieces that together make a complete cottage gardener's hand kit.

• Design: Asteraceae botanical print on sage green background
• Source: RHS Lindley Collections, illustrations c.1810
• Palm: Cushioned for protection and comfort
• Wrist: Gathered cuff to keep debris out
• Fabric: Soft, durable, with built-in stretch
• Washing: Machine-washable at 30°C
• Size: Universal women's fit, size 8.5
• Endorsement: Royal Horticultural Society approved
• Range: Part of the RHS "Gifts for Gardeners" collection
• Made by: Burgon & Ball, Sheffield (since 1730)
• Supplied through: AllotMate

The machine-washable construction makes care genuinely easy:

• Shake out and brush off visible soil before washing
• Machine wash at 30°C — ideally with similar colours rather than bright whites
• Air dry away from direct heat — the printed fabric will fade quickly under tumble dryers or strong sun
• Avoid bleach or fabric softeners — both can damage the print and the stretch fabric
• Store flat or hung gently rather than scrunched up

Treated this way, the print stays vivid and the gloves keep their lovely look for many seasons.

Burgon & Ball have been making garden tools in Sheffield since 1730, drawing on the city's centuries-old expertise in steel and craft. Their RHS-endorsed "Gifts for Gardeners" collection draws on the RHS Lindley Collections — one of the most significant horticultural libraries and archives in the world, containing thousands of botanical illustrations and historical garden materials. We're proud to stock pieces from this collaboration; using two-hundred-year-old botanical art to decorate practical garden kit is the kind of small cultural project that suits our shop exactly.