Some months ago I bought a tiny Haworthia (duly named Howard Hayworth) as an addition to the patio garden. Howard came home in the usual itsy bitsy (2.5 inch?) plastic pot and promptly began growing. I decided this was a perfect occasion to practice making a coiled pot for a particular plant.
Yesterday I took the completed pot from the kiln. This pot will be a little less porous than a standard clay pot as I fired the clay to full "normal" temperature. (For this clay I like to go to around 1046 C [1914 F] - Orton cone 05 for those of you familiar with ceramics technicalities.) I doubt whether this will make much difference for the plant as the clay will still be somewhat porous.
It's a simple little flowerpot, with a hole for drainage. I cupped the rim inward slightly as I've found that shape conserves moisture just a little better. Unfortunately, it also makes it more difficult to fill with soil during planting. But hopefully Howard will be happier for it!
Howard went into the pot this morning.
Just in time, as he was beginning to get a little rootbound! I'm beginning to wonder just how soon I'll need to make a bigger pot...
Note: To all my blogging friends, I've been having a great deal of difficulty keeping up in the blogosphere lately. The last few weeks have seen the task of bringing a new computer online (including the decision to trade out Windows for Linux - an intimidating task for this non-geek, but necessary now that Microsoft is rolling out forced updates to Windows 10 - not something we can deal with on a limited data usage plan, among other problems). Additional issues have been a serious skin allergy my sister was dealing with (better now, I'm happy to say!) besides - on a more pleasant note - the Thanksgiving holiday. All this just to say: I'm hoping to get back to a more interactive blogging schedule now, reading your posts, leaving comments, and whatever else!
Weather Diary: Fair; High: 63 F (17 C)/Low: 34 F (1 C)
The pot is such a gorgeous shape! Just a word of warning though, don't leave it until it becomes completely pot bound. The roots will spread to the full width of the lower part of the pot and then it's a devil of a job to get them out through the narrowed rim. Through my tardiness I've had to take a hammer to pots in the past and that would be awful for this one! Glad all's well.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, Jessica! I'd better make sure I have a new pot available (had no idea it would grow this fast!). I will certainly heed your warning as we had a near disaster of the same sort recently, though we managed to avoid the hammer at least!
DeleteI hope Howard will be very happy in his new home - a lovely shaped pot. A belated Happy Thanksgiving!
ReplyDeleteHoward will be hugely happy - heartfelt thanks :)
DeleteHoward is wonderful and the new pot you created for him is beautiful! Glad your sister is doing better - must have been awful. Poor thing.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, Kate! This is my first time growing Haworthia so it's a fun time learning too. The allergy got severe enough to be a bit frightening - probably a reaction to overzealous use of sunscreen... She's feeling much better now!
DeleteI would echo rusty duck, I love the picture with the shadow, it looks like someone with a spiky hair style!
ReplyDeleteI had the same feelings about that shadow; it gives you all sorts of ideas about Howard's personality... Thanks a lot :)
DeleteIt's a lovely pot and Howard looks great in it. I sympathize with the Windows to Linux transition. I made the same switch a few years ago at my husband's behest (based on security concerns). Luckily, I didn't have to handle the set-up. The processing differences weren't too onerous as I recall.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kris! I'm glad to know switching to Linux worked okay for you. Hopefully I won't do anything too far wrong - at one point I thought I had seriously crashed the computer, but apparently all's well... ;-)
DeleteLoving your gorgeous pot and all its curves! Howard suits it so well!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Jane! It was fun to design for a particular plant though I may have to trade Howard out for something smaller one of these days... :)
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