Spring is an homage to nature. Whether we are good with plants or not, the return of sunny days makes us want to re-pot, to plant and to see beautiful plants grow. Garden pots, flower planters, flower boxes or window boxes of varied shapes and sizes are ready to enhance your garden, your windows, your balcony or terrace.

The most charming pots will forever be the clay fired ones made by hand. This material is very malleable, cooked earth will allow any shape, any dimension and any decoration. Entirely natural, it will offer a selection of colours and aspects that will reflect the region from which it originates. Porous, it will let the air through; roots will breath easily without rotting if there is a surplus of water. However, this means you will have to water your plants quite often. The delicacy of the pots will also demand great care when manipulated.

Wood will give a lot of charisma to Orangery planters. Oak, chestnut, pine, teak or rot proof exotic woods are ideal to make large planters. The great virtue of this material is its protection against frost that will also protect the roots it harbors during winter. Wood will stand any treatment: paint, dyes, varnish…All you need to do is chose your color. The wood will surely grow old, and tarnish with time and will therefore require adequate and regular maintenance. If your planters are too heavy to move, you can always fit wheels onto them.

The Medici vase is timeless. It appeared in 1451 with Come de Medici. Upon its pedestal, with its kingly and elegant look, is an alliance between a classic silhouette and unmistakable baroque floral compositions, and fruit and vine garlands. These cups were originally in Tuscany pottery. There are still identically reedited in the village of Impruneta. The Medici vase can also be made in painted or enameled cast iron in all sizes. Beware of the fakes: they come in legions. Without patina, they will rust in the rain, and without enough iron, they will be of no match for the authentic ones.

The grandeur in jars will send us back to the past. The entire Latin culture is set in the veins of these sizeable egg-shaped pottery vases with large openings that were used for food preservation. These jars, set across mule backs would carry olive oil, wine etc…The most ancient shape is rather round (15th and 16th century) then, during the 17th and 18th century, the vases took on the shape of an olive, and later, during the 19th and 20th century they became more round at the bottom and a tighter opening. This pottery, jars and wall jars will dress both your house and garden with an antique beauty.

The fountain is a source of coolness within your garden. The presence of running water will bring life and poetry to your garden. Wrought iron fountains have a lot of cachet. Most of those that you will discover in second-hand dealers would be recent editions. The old ones are rarest, more expensive and more fragile. To hide a simple tap set up a wall fountain which will add a certain charm to a garden tap. It is easy to install, pretty and cooling. Do not forget to protect the tap during winter.

The bird bath is the charming and quaint decoration element of any garden. You will be at the show to enjoy the comings and goings of birds. During hot periods they will all come to the rendezvous. In rusted metal, in iron or in stone, you will find many different styles.

You can set up a birdhouse nearby or a birdfeeder. Birds will enjoy them since they are confronted by difficult climate conditions in winter. They will be attracted to the feeding dishes.

In a rest chair by the rose bush, or listening to the sweet soft sounds of running water on a planter bench, nothing more is needed to create soft heavens in the mist of summer.