Knife for in the garden

My wife has tried several knives for tending her numerous plants and trees and decided the Victorinox Floral Knife works best for her. Chisel ground, straight edged, stainless steel.

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Polliwog said:
She would use it to open mulch and soil bags, harvesting tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, and beans. She may even use it to cut open the plastic containers that the plants come in. I think something like a spidey hole or thumb stud would work fine or even a nail nick. As far as price range something about $100 or less. I hope this helps give more clarity.
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I would go with a combination of Korean Hog's, White Rhino's and KenHash's suggestions:
Get her a Spyderco Pacific Salt Serrated and a quality Hori Hori knife.
Not all Hori Horis are created equal, some are made of better materials.
 
All of my personal garden knives have been mentioned.

Hori-Hori: For digging small plants or planting same, putting bulbs in the ground, popping weeds out of the ground, etc... 100x better than 99% of the run-of-the-mill "garden trowels" out there.

Byrd Meadowlark Hawkbill: For light trimming, pruning, or harvesting. Also good for a lot of general cutting tasks like removing tags or getting through twine, burlap, or plastics. Cheap enough to not cry if you lose it.

Svörd Peasant: Have had one of these hanging in my garage for years with no special care for the carbon steel other than not putting it away wet. Beater knife for when a straight edge is preferred, or when you don't want to needlessly use a $150 folder to clean your lawnmower deck. Tough, easy to sharpen steel. Lots of color options on the poly scales, prefer them over the wood or alu.

Throw in a good quality set of pruners and a folding saw (like Felco,) and you're off to the races.
 
Bare bones just did a new garden knife that looks pretty awesome, I find myself using my skrama or bk9 for hacking stuff back and for everything else whatever is in my pocket that day
 
While all the mentioned options above would be fine in general, I think the most important factors to consider are:
- the age of the user;
- ease & safety to open/close the tool, even with garden gloves on;
- ease to operate/effectiveness of cutting;
- stain resistance;
- maintenance requirement.

Taken all this together I still think the best options would be the Spyderco Pacific Salt Serrated (Spyder Edge) + a quality Hori Hori.
Shears/prunes are nice, but rust resistance or maintenance could be an issue. Also, it is easier to cut bags, nip stems with the knife I suggested than with the shears: it will take several moves to cut with the shears vs. a single move with the knife.
The SOG ParaShears is a nice multitool, but most of its tools are not easy to deploy or are not of particular use for gardening. Trauma shears are easy to operate, but are usually not very sturdy and they cut small sections at a time only.
The Spyderco knife is light (vs. the Becker or other big fixed blade suggestions). The H1 steel is the MOST rust resistant metal of all the alternatives: a dunk in the water is enough to clean off dirt and you can leave it out to dry without any worries.
Plant sap can be highly corrosive, the H1 steel will resist it very well. The Spyder hole is easy to access and operate, even with gloves on. Much easier to operate in cold weather than nail nicks for example.
Just my thoughts.
 
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I’m a huge fan of good hori-horis, but since you specifically requested a folder—and given the tasks you describe—I’d suggest a Victorinox Floral knife. They’re easy to maintain, can be opened while wearing gloves, and are darn near rustproof.
 
The Victorinox Floral Knife is a very nice folder, but won't be so resistant to constant exposure to dirt/soil and sap as the Spyderco Salt knives, especially at the pivot area and the spring.
 
Halfbaked94 said:
Bare bones just did a new garden knife that looks pretty awesome, I find myself using my skrama or bk9 for hacking stuff back and for everything else whatever is in my pocket that day
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Skrama seems like an awesome blade for chopping, and BK9 is also a beast :D
 
Hard to imagine my mom wielding my Skrama, but I'd love to see it!

Otoh, she's the one who gave me the Hori-Hori as a gift a few years ago, so maybe I shouldn't underestimate her. :)
 
The Opinel Garden knife is the best place to start. The Victorinox floral knife looks like a good option but. cleaning the Opinel will be easier. 12C27 blade steel will work well for her.

Add a good pair of shears though, kitchen shears will work pretty good too.

And, finally a Mora or one of those Japanese knives might be worth a try as well.
 
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