This is a really great article all about houseplants from the Washington Post, and featuring commentary from our friends at Flora Plant Shop in Nashville! 

Of special interest to us is the section about pottery - terra cotta pots are still essential, but other colored clays, such as our Basalt and Granite clays are also great, affordable options:

As your plants grow and thrive, you’ll need to spend more money to repot them. But don’t throw away your old pots or feel pressured to fill them immediately. Instead, keep them for reuse in the future, or consider swapping empty pots with friends as needed.
There are also ways to be budget-conscious while shopping for planters. “Terracotta is typically the most affordable when it comes to pottery,” says Howat, “and there are beautiful options available that aren’t the standard orange clay.” 

All photos shown are from Flora Plant Shop's incredible displays.

The Malaysian pottery tradition is defined by the practice of etching  designs through glazes into the bodies of pots. Over time, this technique has evolved from simple geometric scratches into precise decorations and designs, often made into complex layered glazes and engobes.

Over the past 20 years, our primary Malaysian manufacturing partner has invested heavily in upgrading their traditional equipment, resulting in flower pots and saucers of extraordinary durability, quality, and  a consistent finish.

While some Malaysian pottery has had a reputation for low-quality production and shoddy QC standards, Ceramo has partnered with the most respected flower pot producer in the country to manufacture our Malaysian collection.

Our partner is the only manufacturer in Malaysia to mill and pug their clay before production, and their planters are fired to an extraordinarily high temperature in precise computer-controlled kilns. These extra steps result in extraordinary pots that are capable of withstanding year-round outdoor use in any climate.

We have been working with this particular factory for almost two decades, and have every confidence in their ability to produce pots to the highest standard.

• Our Malaysian planters and saucers are all crafted from an extraordinarily high-fired stoneware clay, and are among the most durable glazed planters sold anywhere.
• All glazes are  engineered to match the specific clay blend used in these pots - this results in glazes that don't crack when exposed to extreme temperatures.
• These pots are freeze-proof, and are safe for year-round outdoor use in all climates when used properly.

Based on the volume of questions that we field from our customers, deciding how to price out a set of flower pots is one of the more difficult tasks facing garden center management today.

There are a lot of approaches to accomplishing this task, and different solutions will often work for different garden centers, or even for different products within the same garden center. In many ways, pricing planters is more of an art than a science, but there are some basic concepts that will help to get you started, and at least one rule that you should never break:

• The biggest key to successfully pricing your pots is to make sure that the prices for each piece are proportionally and logically  related to the actual size and scale of each pot included in the set. The easiest way to do this is to use a simple formula to establish ballpark prices. We use the following to power the Unit Price Calculator on our website – Please note that the steps below will work either before or after your margin calculations:
• Each pot in the set is assigned a numerical value, with 1 being the smallest pot, 2 being the 2nd smallest, 3 being the 3rd smallest, and so forth.
• These numerical unit values are then added together – a three-pot set would have a total unit count of 6, for example (1+2+3=6). Similarly, a four-pot set would total 10 units (1+2+3+4=10).
• You then divide the cost of the set by the set’s total unit count – A three-pot set with a cost of $60.00 would be divided by 6 per the example above, resulting in a unit cost of $10.00.
• This unit cost is then multiplied by the total number of units assigned to an individual pot, so our $60.00 set with an individual unit cost of $10.00 results in per-pot benchmark prices of $10.00 (1 x $10.00), $20.00 (2 x $10.00), & $30.00 (3 x $10.00).
• If you don’t feel like doing the math by hand, we have an easy-to-use downloadable Excel calculator on our website.

Don’t be afraid to second-guess the results from the formula, as many times it will make sense to adjust the weighting of the prices – most often reducing the price of the smallest pot while adding to the cost of the largest pot(s), which tend to be less price-sensitive at retail.

One of the great things about the pottery category is that it offers a lot of opportunity for enhancing your margin dollars. It’s perfectly fine to raise your prices beyond what the formula dictates if you feel that a particular pot can support a higher price –  If a pot looks like a $79.00 item to you, but the formula says that it should be a $59.00 pot, charge the higher price – you can always discount away from it if needed.

Finally, the only hard and fast rule in this process is that you should never, ever, simply divide the cost of a set by the number of pots in the set. This  overly-simple solution always leads to retail prices that don’t make sense, as you wind up with large and small pots sitting on your shelves at the same price.

It seems like Summer just started, but as always, Fall is just around the corner. In the Houzz story below, 5 ideas for Fall planters are discussed – lots of great ideas that can help to grow your pottery department’s profits during the traditional “off season”.

It seems as though the folks at Pantone release a new “color of the year” every few months. This time around, the winner is a leafy, earthy tone they’ve named “Greenery”.

On the one hand, this is great news for those of us in the Lawn and Garden industry, as this exact color is found in the foliage of hundreds of different plants.

On the other hand, pottery and accessory items in this particular selection don’t really fly off of garden center shelves precisely because the color matches such a wide variety of natural greenery.

This is a great opportunity to capitalize on this color trend by merchandising with colors that pair well with the Pantone selection. A couple of sample palettes are shown below for inspiration – it is worth noting the presence of mushroom and grey colors in several of the palettes below – these colors are gaining steam right now.