This huge, glazed terracotta planter was sturdy enough stay entire (enough) to be planted, despite having suffered an accident that many would have deemed unsurvivable. We admired it last month at The Arbor Gate in Texas, one of our favourite places for picking up garden inspiration and some choice plants in the South.
Part decoration, part sales display, the planter was filled with violas (let’s prefer the folk names – heartsease or Johnny-Jump-Ups) growing around red and white spotted toadstools made of glass.
Fragments scattered on the compact tier of greenery added to the wabi-sabi effect – ‘nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect’.
I’m adding an un-square version so you can get a better feel for the whole – the new whole, that is:
No longer pristine, if it ever was, this pot is still doing what it was made to do, still making people smile, to my mind, more artful than when it was entire. Long may it last!
Shared for Becky’s May of Squares. If you’d like to join in, her topics for this month are:
Burgeoning – Move Forward – Reconstruct – Renew
I’ve chosen Reconstruct for the planter and Renew for me, to celebrate being back after an unplanned absence from the blog. I’m not even going to attempt to catch up with my post reading, but I hope all my blogging buddies are well. I’ve missed you!
Susan Rushton 
Well, this is a surprise. I’ve never been to the Arbor Gate, but Bev Welch sometimes is a guest on a weekend gardening show I listen to on the radio. I also follow their blog, and can’t help wondering if your beloved doesn’t do a bit of writing for them as well as lecturing.
Not so far as I know, although his books have inspired the Slow Gardening signs there. We know Greg Grant who may be the writer you are thinking of. Both he and Beverley are sweet people. I hope you’ll get a chance to visit The Arbor Gate some day.
So glad that you’re back! Missed your keen eye and delightful observations Susan! Not to mention living vicariously through you since I may or may not land in the places that you bring us along to! Xoxoxo
Thanks very much for your kind words, Grace.
Long may it last is right! Wonderful use of a broken pot that no doubt is an improvement on the original. I especially like those cascading mushrooms.
They would have been very artfully placed and then nature exerts its forces even on glass mushrooms. It’s a nice surprise to hear from you as I saw you are on a blogging break. I hope your latest book is coming along swimmingly! I’m sending good luck wishes.
I’m trying to keep up a little, at least, with blogging friends.