Copper stork bird bath with ferns and fuschia

I see you have re-purposing down pat <_>

This "pot" is an old wooden swing, too rickety to sit on. Impatiens fill it up.

hard to see embedded tipped barrel

Another bird bath that you can barely see planted with white Lobelia.

actually, we really do like strawberries, but in the shade, ummm,

Small Fuschia in a bullfrog

and hypertofa is cheap and easy to make

Ajuga in a small bird cage

This post was edited by Hostanista on Sat, Feb 16, 13 at 15:29

Sadly I either don't have any clever pots, or I don't have pictures of them! But I'm inspired by some of the great ideas here - my favourite is hostanista's great swing filled with impatiens (one of the hardest working flowers available and one of my favourites.)
Jan

But Jan, I like that BIG brown pot!

now if only I had a matching tea cup to go next to the pot

cement pots git character with age

pedestal required

a 'MichiGander' pot - ok, mebbe it's a swan ^_^

mebbe a plain pot jes need a good pedestal

da ol' holler stump trick

Hypertufa was fun but messy. These were made summer of 2011. I hope to have a project this summer.

My trough

DH's trough

The leaf

basket-cases

sometimes plain is what fits best

hanging cast iron frame garage sale find, with pot dropped in

bundt cake pan

Hostanista: I absolutely adore you bullfrog. I am in love with it. If I could sneak up to it and kiss it do you think it would turn into my prince:? Ii's eyes are absolutely captivating.
Theresa

Theresa: Yes Mr. Bullfrog is a heart-stealer for sure. Here he is this summer guarding the Toad Crossing at the creek. He had lost his Fuschia by then. I might try a small fern in him this spring. And that's Cooper my Aussiedoodle in the creek.

A old wicker side table, turned upside down, spray painted bright green, holding a massive Poinsettia from the previous Christmas.

An antique fireplace grate I got for a steal at an outdoor market, which I plant up with different things every year - that one has a variety of annuals. The metal dog standing guard is Spike, cut from an old propane tank (not by me). Can you tell he's a boy?

Sometimes pots don't have to contain anything at all. Here's some extra clay pots I had lying around that dressed up a shady pathway between houses leading to the back yard. A few bits of newly planted Japanese Spurge add a touch of green.

At the very top of the pic is an old red maple syrup bucket planted with a fern.

Fun topic!
My favourite plant in a strawberry pot is succulents.

An old birdcage planted.

Gosh; my creative mind is overwhelming me! I don't know where to go. I have so much that I think of as trash that can make artistic potted displays.

OMG, the last thing I need is a reason to SAVE more stuff. But what an honorable cause :)
Les had an old shovel that the wood rotted so badly it had broken and he wanted to toss the steel blade. I saved it. I'd wire brushed it and spray painted it a metallic silver and it is now a garden 'treat'. It is beyond me how anyone can just toss such a trusty friend as an old shovel?
Theresa

This post was edited by gogirlterri on Sat, Feb 16, 13 at 20:50

Since I got into hosta, I've had a desire to take care of plants during the winter, to take the edge off not seeing my outside plants, I guess. I have just a few African Violets potted up; here's my dwarf in a 2" pot. I like the leaf variegation on this one.

Regards,
Don B.

No rustic pot here, but I liked this $5 'Sagae' from HD in an existing pot. Bernd

In 2010 as an experiment I planted several $3 TCs from HD in this pot in front of the house in the porch; they liked it there. But all died over winter or in spring, possibly because I piled snow on them. Bernd

Here are a couple of green pots that I put hosta in last year. I love pretty ceramic pots.

Guacamole

Red Alert

Love this thread. What wonderful imaginations you all have. I was glad to see the flowers included. I have lots of hostas in pots but the pots themselves are not all that unique. I usually hide them behind other things and the pots are to bring the plants to different levels. I'll look through some pictures and see what I have to share.

Beverly
I love your concrete leaf. Did you make it? I would like to try making some concrete ideas on internet I like too and when it is a bit warmer will try them out

Awesome thread with separately loaded photos. I was noticing the leaf of cement or hypertufa. I think Little and Lewis out in Bainbridge Island WA made a business out of their cement items. Great artistry complements (or is that compliments?) our gardens. Another layer of beauty.

That first photo, with a bait bucket, was that CATCH OF THE DAY? Or is there a hosta named FISH OR CUT BAIT? It is a real challenge thinking of the symbolism.

Caladium and Elephant Ears in a hypertufa pot I made several years ago.

Deb

Hypertufa troughs on a small retaining wall planted with various sedum ground cover, basket of Vera Jamison front left and rouge succulent ground cover spreading through the rocks.

Deb

Geranium in fall dress, planted in a wooden carpenter's tote. This is the best photo as an example of the "pot" but, the plant was actually pretty during the summer.

As a plant-pot-head, I'm enjoying everyone's pot plantings and getting inspired as well ;-)

Deb

My "concrete" leaf was made from leftover hypertufa mix. The recipe I used was too much for the pot I wanted to make. I had enough left over to make the two troughs and the leaf. To get the veins of the leaf (sieboldiana Elegans) to show you need to add more water. So I added water to what was left to make the leaf. I would do that again, less left over? Smaller leaf.

Original pot I planned (no plants growing yet so not so pretty)

Here is my be-yoo-ti-ful glazed strawberry pot. Planted with anything BUT strawberries. I saw this gorgeous pot at T.J. Maxx weeks before the planting season started, a couple of years ago. And I GRABBED it because I knew it would be gone like the wind if I didn't. And I am sooo glad that I did. I made a mini Japanese garden for about 18" around it by putting a large marble tile on the ground, then covering that with an inch of river gravel and surrounding the tile with a "fence" of pieces of slate to contain the gravel.

Well, not the pots, but the pots' holder.
A horse evener over lancifolia.

tj

Very creative tsugajunkie, I like it a lot! I may have to copy your idea, that is, if you don't mind!

One thing I'd like to mention about the hangers (for your pots of impatients) that you called "horse eveners" ...

in our part of the country the middle one is called a "double tree" and the two outside ones are "single trees" used, as you indicated, for team horses pulling wagons or old school farm implements (instead of tractors).
;-)
Deb

Thanks Deb. You go right ahead and use that idea.
More years ago than I'd care to remember (so let's just say during the Eisenhower/Kennedy terms), my uncles on farms around Stevens Point, WI used horses for many things even though they had tractors. They referred to the hitches as single and double tree eveners.

I picked it up for a couple bucks at an auction many years ago and my wife was quite perplexed but I knew it and my contorted pine were made for each other.

tj

Pictures are fixed. Now I can share a few. Better late than never I guess. I've enjoyed all the above pictures. I can not wait to plant lobelia in a pot and put it on a pedestal and place it somewhere.

Here is maybe the most unique planter I have. It is an rusty upside down lamp given to me by a neighbor. I love rusty things around in the garden and have quite a collection from him.

It is right by the front door so quite a feature. By the way HH, The mosaics in your garden are great. I like mosaic too and now want to do more as planters.

Robert Frost hosta is raised up on rusty wheel rims from trucks. I learned by mistake not to actually plant in them. There isn't much of an opening in some of them and the roots eventually got very tangled and hard to get out but I do like to put another pot inside of them.

Some of my stump plantings. This planter is now in the middle of my 3rd last... last bed made and planted in the 2012 fall.

Another stump with a sword fern planted but always seems to need more water so I may more it. This too is in one of my latest fall plantied beds Half the lombardy popular is still living.
I have two copper patio fire pits planted but the picture was not that great but makes for a beautiful arrangement.

Planted in the fall and same stump in the background when fern has died back. May have to try something else to plant in it this spring