What fun pottery you make Reine. It will be so much fun to see them planted up. I hope you will share photos with us when you get them planted.

Reine said:Clay lasts forever, if stored correctly. I still have blocks of clay that are more than 40 years old. And thankfully my 25 year old electric kiln still works. :thumbsup:

LOL My daughter has gotten the bug, too. She is taking pottery classes and I got out a few bricks of 35 year old clay a few months ago and gave them to her.
Your pots are beautiful.

Love your pots Reine! You're very creative. I look forward to seeing them planted up too!

Thank you all for your kind words about my pots.
I am getting a little bit of repotting done every day. I am spending too much time figuring out which plant should go in which pot. This is taking hours it seems some plants are telling me "no, I want that pot" and are being argumentative about the whole thing. Thankfully, a few plants are happy with the first or second try.

Photos may take a while, as my computer is in the shop, they said for 2-3 weeks So, my mom is kind enough to let me borrow her old windows 7, gosh, I forgot how much I liked windows 7. Anyway, I want to wait for mine before I start adding photos to my photo gallery.

Soon we will see photos by Reine.

I've looked for porch rail planters for years and finally found some that work for me - They have adjustable handles to go over the porch rail, but the best part is there's a little drawer at the bottom of the planter that pulls out and presses against the uprights to level the thing. No screws involved (whew!)



This is artemesia "David's Choice' in a clay pot I've painted. I love painting clay pots - the paint just soaks right in and stays there through rain, wind, and whatever.

Simply Marvelous

I agree with Cinta. And the begonias are gorgeous.

Carol, those are beautiful blooms and I love that purple pot. What type of paint do you use?

Believe it or not, Gigi, that purple one is plain old interior latex paint. So are several of the others. I get the sample sizes from HD. For the really big pots in the front yard I had to spring for a quart of exterior gloss. I use three coats of paint. I'll find another shot of the painted pots.

I'll do even better - I'll show you twice. There are others - I'll find them eventually. In the meantime, before I precipitously pushed the "finished" button, I wanted to say that I've been through all 61 pages of this thread, finally and love seeing everybody's containers. I was a little trepidatious about it at first, thinking I'm going to see those fabulous (kinda impossible) lush containers in the magazines, and I'm sure some of them are, but its better - its realistic and imaginative and sometimes whimsical. I just love the work you all are doing. Thanks for sharing.

Carol, for sharing your idea and photos of your lovely painted containers.

Hi, Deebie - I originally got the idea from an article in some gardening publication, but the instructions were so long and convoluted I decided to shortcut the whole process. I clean, let dry, paint, let dry, plant and hope for the best. We'll see how they hold up from mild to hot to rain and back again over time. I may wish I'd followed the convoluted process someday, or I'll just paint them again. I have painted clay containers with plants already in them. I use those long plastic hair clips to hold the spiller parts out of the way. I have plain old clay pots out there right now, but eventually they'll get theirs.

Carol for sharing your idea! I love that you can customize the colors and I love that purple and green.

Its a lot of fun to play with the colors. The Tuscan clay pots are more easily painted because they have smooth sides and natural divisions. They are also much lighter than Mexican clay and cost more. The Mexican clay takes the paint just fine, but is decorated. The decoration part requires use of a brush rather than a foam applicator, therefore takes more time. But.. one of these days, I'll fill in the bird wings or whatever that is.

Thanks for the compliments, Cinta, Lynn, Gigi. I love them, but didn't expect so much attention to the painted pots - I have to do more now, and fancier, don't I? Here's a couple of the other Tuscany clay pots. Those pics are a tad dark, aren't they? I keep thinking about mums for the brown/gold pot, so that heuchera may get moved, or I may just get another pot.




I just got the pot trellis I ordered for my white clematis. So tomorrow's work is settled. I love the trellis. As soon as I saw the pic I thought "Rivendell - elven architecture".

Love that Heuchera in that container. Looks great.

, Julia.

Lovely blooms and containers Carol. That begonia in particular is just a gorgeous colour! What really struck me though is your Sago Palm growing on the boulevard! (Absolute zone envy here) Sadly, I can only grow that has a house plant, lol.

I do love those begonias. Its b. hiemalis 'Dusty Rose'. This one is 'Champagne'. They're in the porch rail planter boxes.