I know what you mean. You get tired of seeing the same pots year after year. Lately, I have noticed these highly glazed pots in a rainbow of colours around two or three shops in my area. They are really something and come in three sizes: 4 inch, 5 inch, and 6 1/2 inch. Although they are not plastic, they are ceramic and a bit more substantial in weight. The plastic ones I have seen are not that varied in colour. There are several colours I had to have in the ceramic ones: a beautiful bright yellow, a clear and true red, a navy blue; and a sage green. There are even pumpkin orange, red orange, teal, and orchid pots available, as well as a dark purple. One green I don't care for (which seems to be selling well): it is more chartreuse than green, really. I try to coordinate my indoor plants and bulbs with these colours as well as with the seasonal hues that are expected.

I love terra cotta pots with certain plants, but after a while a striking colour can really make the display. It just seems to add something to the flower. I once saw a white tulip in a navy pot and it was so lovely I had to get one of those pots. It stayed in my mind for years!

Painting pots is an option, too; one I had not really considered seriously. It sounds like you have really created something that perhaps I should be thinking about.

I prefer clay pottery, hands down. Clay can be quite decorative, comes in all sorts of styles, shapes, and sizes, but sometimes you have to hunt around to find the good/interesting stuff (most nurseries/garden centers carry just the "standard" clay pots). Clay holds up well for a long time, and gets better as it ages IMO. It never looks "fake", either, like a lot of plastic pottery I've seen.

I also like wooden planters, but don't have too many of those because they do rot out eventually, and nicer smaller sizes aren't easy to find.

Aesthetics/personal preferances aside, natural substances such as wood and clay are better for plants. Plastic heats up in the sun and roots can "cook", that does not happen with clay. The downside to clay is it does dry out faster (the clay absorbs water from the root mass, and large clay pots are heavy.

Clay has been used for millenia, it has stood the test of the time both aesthetically and functionally. :)

Oh, forgot about the color question. I have pottery in various colors in neutral (earth-type) tones as well as the standard terra-cotta clay. They all blend together beautifully :)

I collect unique pots to grow annuals in. I have washtubs, copper fish boilers, old enamel bedpans, old buckets, including a milk strainer, an old copper fire extinguisher an old cream can I painted coppery . In my copper colored pots I grow a combination of white flowers and green foliage plants (very stunning)

My favorite color combination is salmon, purple and yellow this combo is very striking and looks especially beautiful in some new glazed teal pots that I bought this year from Walmart.

I use a variety of clay and cheap plastic pots, although I am working my way up to larger pots rather than many smaller pots, as I find it helps with how long it takes before they dry out.

But to unite all of them, I've discovered patio paints. All my deck pots are now either sunshine yellow or cobalt blue. The front stoop pots and the don't fall off the edge of the driveway pots are in forest green with light blue trim.

Patio paint is pretty cheap, comes in lots of colors, and if you add a coat or two of exterior glaze looks like ceramic. Since I empty and store the clay pots to keep them from cracking in the freezes, the paint lasts several years. Then it is easy to scrub them down with a brush and repaint. Usually by then I'm ready for a different color anyway. Painting over a different color just means three or four coats instead of two or three.

I look like I've got expensive pots instead of the cheapest I can find.

Thanks for the great suggestions-- some ideas I hadn't thought of.