With Reluctance I Go Terracotta

So I bought some new plants recently and a few more have since arrived since then. They came in small pots and are meant to be re-potted as soon as possible. However it still took me days to do so, not because of lack of time but rather I was mulling over which pots to use.

Aloe suprafoliata

It wasn't that we didn't have any empty pots, in fact we have loads of them stacked in the working area. It was more that I felt I didn't have any nice pots to put them in.
Also, with it being late summer already I was considering whether it would be worth it to put them in nice pots now for display. Or just pot them on into any pot on hand and let them grow more and keep them as pristine as possible during the winter. Then come early next year pot them on into nicer containers for display in the garden.

We do have stacks of them (even broken ones are handy)...

I wasn't doing the new plants a favour by hesitating, the sooner they get repotted the better while the weather is still warm so they grow more and settle in nicely. The right and nice looking pots that I had in mind was not on hand and the risk of wasting time looking around during our days off was very high. It's the wrong time to look for nice pots anyway as options are low especially with retail industry very eager to move on to the next season looming ahead.

So with reluctance I repotted them all and decided to go with terracotta....

Almost all terracotta, some plastic got used too. But it's for growing on so doesn't really matter

Mostly terracotta, as the majority of our empty pots at the moment are of that material.

So what's wrong with terracotta pots? Not much really, in fact it has so many merits.

Unglazed terracotta pot is the LBD of container gardening, it's difficult to get it wrong with it. It is a simple, timeless, and an elegant material for a pot. Terracotta pots are readily available and they age beautifully with moss, algae, limescale, and of course dirt adding character to the pot as time passes by. And they look classy and effortlessly expensive. Yes they do come in a wide spectrum of quality and price bracket but they are one of the cheapest pots you can buy in any garden (or DIY) shop around and yet always look a lot more expensive especially compared to plastic ones within the same price range. Terracotta pots versus plastic pots? The former almost always wins hands down in the aesthetics department.

Made in La Bella Italia! We often joke how these inexpensive terracotta pots are actually 'posh'
because they are made in Italy (tongue in cheek).

It has disadvantages too of course like their heavier weight, porosity and tendency to dry out quicker, and liability to break at any point and for a multitude of reasons.

So with all the merits I just mentioned why me going terracotta was with reluctance?

Because I'm bored with them that's all. Terracotta is fab but it's also too safe. 

To abandon plain terracotta pots would be a very impractical thing to do...

I don't intend to abandon this material for pots of course, it would be too impractical and expensive if I did considering how many potted plants we have in the garden. But a few more interesting and colourful ones wouldn't go amiss and would enhance our garden. Not to mention fun to 'play around with'.

But boy it isn't easy to find these' colourful and interesting' pots that's for sure, especially personal tastes are a great influence. Actually I do have some already and this post will be tied in to another one I'll post a few days from now.

So for now terracotta pots will do, with the promise that next year I may give them more interesting homes to be in....

Or new clothing perhaps? Sometimes LBD just won't do.

Mark :-)