Home Depot and Lowe's actually have some decent plastic containers in a quasi-tuscan style. I would suggest anything over the crappy low-fired terracotta ones that disintegrate after 2 yrs. They are cheap moneywise because they are cheap construction-wise.

Most things that are semi-watertight and have drainage openings can serve as interesting containers. You need to be careful of chemicals and potential toxins that could get into the soil mix though. You also need to be aware of how different container exteriors react to direct sun in terms of temperature.

Unless you are lucky scavenging garage sales or boutiques, you get what you pay for with containers. High quality glazed pots are expensive but can last a lifetime.

Thanks Oxboy,

I've checked out the national chains, and they're okay-ish. Ace Hardware actually seems to have a better selection, I've found, in terms of lots of sizes/shapes in more than two colors. But they're always missing random things, and it's annoying as heck.

Nice glazed stuff is an investment, I agree. The cheaper plastic stuff is better than nothing for now. And some of my design ideas involve grouping pots pretty closely together, and in some cases on the ground, where the beauty of individual pots would get lost. One advantage of uniform plastic or unpainted clay pots is that they sort of blend together when you use several of them closely. Although given the budget I would still opt for wood, clay, and other more natural materials.

I guess I should start doing a bit more research about whether it's wise for your soil to come into contact with stuff like acrylic paint resin, before I get too ambitious about any sort of painting. The only edibles I intend to grow are some chili peppers; I have a north-facing patio, so almost no full sun. Which obviates the concern about pots heating up; actually the patio is a concrete slab that, despite being in Southern CA/ zone 10b, is cool enough to support moss growth (the sprinklers watering it every night helps).

This post was edited by shady_10b on Sun, Aug 31, 14 at 14:54

What city in SoCal?

If you are near me, I could give you some help.

Yes, where in SoCal?

I'ma fan of nice plain terra cotta. They always match and a bunch of identical style one can be impressive.

In SoCal, your water is probably pretty hard, minerally and salty like here (after all, you get much of your water from us here at Lake Mead). If you plan to water with straight hose/tap water, you're going to get white crust and disintegration pretty quick on any cheap clay stuff. If you are fine with replacing your pots every few years, then cheap clay could be the way to go.

I would however invest in plastic saucers if you care about potentially staining your patio. Clay saucers fall apart just like the pots and they inevitably spring leaks, which isn't too bad outside but a b*tch if it happens on your nice carpet unexpectedly.

One more tip from experience -- many good gardeners/horticulturalists are poor designers and vice versa. Why? Conflict of interest between plantcare and aesthetics. If you can put the plant that you want in the pot that you want in the place that you want and the plant thrives from the get-go, then you should buy lotto tickets or hit the indian casinos. Point is we greenthumbers will move a pot around 100x until it's perfect for the plant's health. If design and aesthetics are priority, then make sure you get exactly the best plant for the location of the pot(s).

Greg, nil, thanks so much for the offer! I'm in Costa Mesa (Orange County). I'd love to see/know what you can spare.

Although, I'm afraid I'm avoiding terra cotta. In my case it's because it's less water-wise than other options. I know we're not talking about buckets of water here, but still, blah blah blah drought.

Oxboy--I've already noticed what you said about strong design vs. strong horticultural ability. There must be a few people out there that can do both at once, but I imagine they're professionals with a lot of practice. I'm sure I fall on the design side, but it's already abundantly clear to me that I'm limited in what I can successfully grow. To me that almost makes the design challenge easier, since I'm not overwhelmed by horticultural choices. But the tradeoff is that very few nurseries and garden centers in the area have much in the way of a shade section, since most people in the area who garden have big sunny yards.

Here's a picture looking out onto my patio; the photo doesn't really reflect the width of the space, but I wanted to capture a sense of the amount of reflected light it gets. At the edge of the concrete slab around where the table is now, I'd like to put a row of three 6"x18" window box planters alternating with 8" square planters, to create a foundation (on my side) for the daylilies and help hide the weedy earth right beneath them. Preferably in light grey to match the concrete, but I haven't quite been successful finding those shapes in that color. I'm tenatively considering blue corydalis var. 'purple leaf' in the long boxes, and I'm still pretty unsure about what to do wtih the square planters. I'll have to use a very free-draining medium here since they'll be watered by the sprinklers every night.

Off to the right, I'm hoping I can get away with a few potted foxgloves (var. 'Pam's Split' or 'Pantaloons'), and I'd like to keep the pots on a foot bench or something else to help them get a little extra height (and direct light). For these I want cream-colored pots to match the building's stucco, and I've been able to find that color in pretty decent circular sizes from an online retailer.

I'll probably use that same color off to the left, in the area with the under-watered daylily, where I have a bunch of pots now, to grow chili peppers (purple jalapenos and sweet yellow aji). I wasn't sure about using cream-colored pots there, but when you mentioned the effect the sun would have on them I thought a light color would be smarter.

The interior areas of the patio is more tentative, mainly because I'd like to use wire shelving, and that isn't exactly cheap either (I'll cough up the money eventually, but it's not the first thing I'm eager to run out and buy). But the point is, most of the shelving space will be fairly flexible in terms of moving plants around, as well as being the more logical place to showcase attractive glazed pots. I'll probably have a few larger focal points on the interior, but I digress.

Wow, I really do digress. I didn't mean to ramble, ha! I hope I haven't imposed.

Shady, have you looked on line? Just doing a quick search brought this up. This is a large pot, not sure how large you are looking for.

Jane

Here is a link that might be useful: Large flower pot

Yes, Jane. In fact I'd wager I spent many times longer looking online than you did.

None of the places that I use are close to Costa Mesa. In looking at your next posts, it seems like you are more interested in finding the exact 'look' you want instead of really good prices or high quality pieces for a reasonable price.

Since you want variety and the ability to look at lots of different pots, I would suggest Pottery Manufacturing & Distributors. 18881 S Hoover St. Gardena, CA

Here is a link that might be useful: Website

You mentioned cheap, I found these today in Walmart
$12.99, I happen to like this type as it insulates the roots from the heat.
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This one was quite big and only $9.00. You could grow Hostas in it.
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These looked nice for $12.99 and big.
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Jane

If you have a drill, even a mechanical hand-drill, anything can be turned into a plant pot. I found a duck decoy at a thrift store, cheap because it had a big square hole in the back. I drilled several holes in the bottom of it and it has held up perfectly as an outdoor planter for years. Sits on my porch with a single plant of small size flowers in it, (eg violets, violas, lobelia). The other responders don't understand cheap, as in free. If you are desperate, cut off waxed milk cartons to the desired height, drill holes, they will last a year or until you can upgrade. This lets you get started with smaller less expensive or volunteer plants. Just got an aluminum angel food cake pan at the thrift store. I'll drill holes, and it will be a planter for several Impatiens surrounding the umbrella pole on my little patio table. Garage sale worn out shoes look cool with succulents growing out of them (don't forget to drill those holes). Got a leaky bucket or watering can? Now it's a cute planter. Good luck with creative up-cycling!

If you have no full sun, you need a grow light above all else. $100 on ebay.

Then, get either black nursery pots or Lowes blue 5-gallon pails and black Mondi saucers.

If you are worried about water and terra cotta, just get some sealer and seal the inside of the pot. you can use masonry sealer, asphault roofing emulsion, or elastomeric roofibg emulsion. then go to the pottery place in Gardena mentioned up thread and look for the nice plain terra cotta from Italy.

Recently picked up 2'x1'x1' flue liner from local masonry yard for $25. My plan is to bury maybe 9" of it underground, have focal point plant on top, probably a conifer. May drill holes in the side (diamond hole saw drill bit) so they hit midway down the topsoil for better drainage (under 6" top soil is dense, rocky soil.)

Simular-looking clearly less sturdy (and in any case less good for my situation) things from the garden center were $100+. Of course for balcony use you would probably need to make a bottom.

Haven't decided if I totally like the look of the edge yet. (The one I have is less jagged then the pic.) If not I'll do some conifer with overhang.

Do you have a shop called ReStore, which sells used house pieces and hardware with profits going to Habitat for Humanity? Only because of the way they were stacked, I discovered the deep slim kitchen cabinets that traditionally go above fridges ... turn them on their end for rather tall deep planters. Too big to fill with soil, but not too big for three 5 gallon buckets with holes drilled in the bottom. Three years later, they look fantastic on the outside but the bottom is starting to buckle. That doesn't matter so much though, as the way the cabinets are assembled, the bottom doesn't interfere with the stability of the cabinet itself, and I don't move them around. $40 for what would be hundreds of dollars in proper planters.

One thing I've learned is not to limit myself to planters with holes. If it doesn't have a hole, that means that you can place a pot with plant inside ... alot easier in the end to repot, change plants around, etc, without the water mess on the balcony/patio etc.

I don't know what your desired look is but if rustic/country/French country is your thing, these are super cheap:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/b1/93/ee/b193eee4daaedb6627c2483a8f867caf.jpg

and these aren't much more, could be modernized or make rustic, either way

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/ce/3f/09/ce3f091951b857cb5c438e0a053a6aaa.jpg