My mother loved to use antique pots to hold plants and cut flowers, and when I was growing up our house was filled with an assortment of old brass kettles, copper wash boilers and salt-glazed pottery crocks. The crocks were the most interesting because they were “country” pieces, used on farms in the last quarter of the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth centuries. We had a large one in the kitchen that was originally used to hold waterglass eggs, a commodity that went out of fashion when home refrigeration came in.
Waterglass eggs were fresh hens’ eggs that housewives submerged in a solution of liquid sodium silicate, which coated the eggshells’ tiny pores and protected the eggs from spoiling. The eggs reportedly stayed fresh in the waterglass-filled crock for up to two years, though I doubt that even the thriftiest housewife would consider using a two-year-old egg.
Waterglass is gone, but the crocks can live on as plant containers. A large one, with drainage holes in the bottom, could support a mature plant with a healthy-size root ball. An array of egg crocks in a variety of sizes would make a lovely addition to a porch, terrace or small garden. The only difficulty for people who live in cold-winter climates would be finding indoor space for the pots in winter.
Putting a plant in an old egg crock is an adaptive re-use of an antique vessel, but there is also a whole category of pots that have been manufactured for centuries specifically to hold plants. No less decorative, these pots are familiar to most gardeners under the generic name “terra cotta”, which means “baked earth” in Latin. This is actually a very apt description of the process used to make the brownish red pots.
These days terra cotta vessels in every shape and size are available everywhere, from the toniest garden shops to the back lot of your neighborhood mega-merchandiser’s store. Cheap ones are mass produced in Mexico or Asia. Expensive ones can come from anywhere in the world, but especially Western Europe, and, occasionally, the United States. You can even get upscale plastic pots that look like terra cotta from a distance and weigh only a fraction of the real thing.
Some of the best terra cotta pots come from the Italian town of Impruneta, in Tuscany, south of Florence. Impruneta pots are handmade from the local clay, which has a chemical make-up that allows the pieces to be fired at very high temperatures. When the pots are finished, they are rosy pink and very durable. If you tap on an empty Impruneta pot, it will ring. Unlike pots fired at lower temperatures, Impruneta pots can usually survive freezing winter temperatures.
Antique and modern Impruneta vessels are often ornamented with terra cotta swags, garlands, fruits, canes, medallions and other decorative, high-relief embellishments that hearken back to the Italian Renaissance. Greek terra cotta is characterized by traditionally shaped containers such as amphorae, olive jars and ewers. In England gardeners favor the time-honored “long tom” pot that is tall, relatively slender and free of decoration.
Though plastic is usually cheaper and lighter, I am one of the many gardeners who still love terra cotta because it is porous and tends to keep plants’ roots cooler. As long as you don’t drop a well-made terra cotta pot onto a hard surface, it can last for a long, long time with very little care. One importer of modern Impruneta pots also sells antique models that have spent decades in estate gardens and green houses. Most are as useful and beautiful now as the day they were made.
If you want a modern handmade terra cotta pot, save your pennies. A lavishly decorated, medium-size pot that can hold about two gallons of soil might cost as much as three hundred dollars. Fortunately, there are sales, close-outs and other opportunities that allow terra cotta aficionados to indulge themselves for a bit less money.
So why spend so much money on an Impruneta or other handmade pot when your plants could do just as well in an old paint can? Because good terra cotta can be artistic as well as utilitarian. Because Impruneta and other handmade vessels appreciate in value over the years. And most of all, because a lovely, well-grown specimen plant deserves an equally lovely place to park its roots.
To see a selection of imported Impruneta terra cotta vessels, contact Siebert & Rice,
P.O. Box 365, Short Hills, NJ 07078
, Phone 973-467-8266, www.seibert-rice.com..