Crackpots

I brought several unglazed terra cotta plant containers with me when we moved here. One did not survive the move intact, but the rest did. These were expensive, imported items that needed to be showcased in my new spaces.

They are small Terracina Italian pots, handmade and with a lovely washed patina. The proportions are just right, delicate but rustic. The color is soft, not the hard orange of typical clay flowerpots.

The narrow vase, or "tom pot", is a perfect size and proportion that I haven't found anywhere else.

There are two small oblong troughs that I like too -- their proportions and soft color are also just right.

They were small, and finding the right plants for a little oblong trough was a challenge.

Terracina pots are frost resistant, which means they were fired at very high temperatures to make them less porous and less likely to hold moisture in winter that would expand the clay and break it. The high quality clay and firing means they are more resistant to high heat too, and less prone to crack.

But crack they did. 

The vase and one of the oblong troughs have big cracks now. And while I'm disappointed to see it and to have valuable items deteriorate, my time growing plants in terra cotta pots is over. It is simply too dry here. 

Annual flowers -- the only things small enough for these containers -- needed twice daily watering as the porous clay wicked every drop away from the soil and into the air. Repeated daily soaking and rapid drying was tough on the clay as it constantly expanded with moisture and contracted in the dry air over and over. 

I tried more drought tolerant native perennials too, but they had to come out for winter so the pots could be stored dry. So that didn't work. I never got around to potted cactus, though. That didn't interest me.

I don't want a lot of potted plants any more, they are too labor intensive to keep watered. The stores here don't even carry the interesting annuals I was used to growing. And I'm not interested in having small containers grouped about the patio and tucked into gardens any more, it all seems too busy looking. 

Sadly, I think it's time to retire my handmade Terracina pottery, both the cracked pots and the ones still whole.