Pots for every occasion

There are some pots that I've owned for years.

I buy them out of necessity — when I've picked up a plant and don't have anything on hand that I can recycle at the moment, many of those are just blah pots because I'm in a hurry to get the plant potted and situated in its place on my patio.

I buy them because I just like the pot and don't have a particular plant tagged to call it home.
 


Sometimes I buy the container not knowing exactly what I'm going to use it for, plants or otherwise.
 


That's how it was with this Hungarian baby bath.

I originally thought I would put it in my garden with my birdhouses and bottle trees. Maybe I would fill it with ice and drinks when I had company since it has a convenient drain for the ice that melts.


But I've ended up using it as a seasonal plant container.
 
It sits on my patio and right now — I have these great ferns in it.



Once it gets cold, I'll have to move the ferns inside, but the bathtub will stay.
 
In October, I'll put some yellow or white mums out to welcome the trick-or-treaters.
 
In the winter, I fill it with pansies.
 
If you use big container plants, you can just drop them right in and lift them right out when you're ready for something different.
 


If I get tired of changing the plants out, I still have the option to ditch the plants and fill it with ice and drinks  or —
 

cover it and use it as a serving table or —


just sit it in the garden with the bird houses and bottle trees. 
 


"He hits from both sides of the plate," Yogi Berra once said. "He’s amphibious."
 


That's the way some containers are — amphibious.