Where to buy terracotta pots?

I seem to remember a thread about a great place to buy pots really cheaply, in the East Bay somewhere. You could load your cart for 30 bucks or thereabouts. Can anyone remind me where that place was - or suggest any other good places? I'm looking for rectangular ones, about 24 to 36 inches long and 9 to 12 inches wide.

I think this was the thread you're talking about, but I think towards the end of the thread people were mentioning that they don't have the big huge sales anymore. I think there might be a few other pot places mentioned in the thread too
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/495717/

Thanks, ecrane3. I will call NorCal Pottery Outlet and see what they have before I take a trip over the Bay. The other places are all in Southern California - too far away :(

Pottery Land is one of the ones that was mentioned, it's in Richmond so if NorCal doesn't have what you're looking for you could try there too. There's also a place right next to 101 just a couple exits north of Gilroy, I have no idea what the prices are, but I see it every time I drive down that direction, you might check them out too.

The place in Gilroy (Garden Accents) has a very nice selection, but their prices are high!

Good to know--every time I go past there I debate stopping and checking it out, now I know I don't need to!

It's a neat place to visit if you're in the area, even if you don't buy anything. They have some nice demo gardens---nothing like Sierra Azul's, but nice. Heavy on the hardscape and statuary; light on the plants; pretty much the opposite of Sierra Azul, now that I think about it LOL!

I love Sierra Azul, that's where I'm usually heading when I drive past Garden Accents!

It's my favorite, too!

You're lucky you live so close, if it wasn't an hour drive I'd probably be there every weekend!

I have to restrain myself....I've been resisting for a while. It's been too hot here to plant anyway. My last purchase there was 2 1-gal alstroemeria "casablanca" which have been blooming off and on for about 6 weeks. It's just gorgeous!

But lest I be accused of hijacking this thread, let me say that I've found my best deals on southeast Asian stoneware pots at Orchard Supply (especially when they have their no-tax weekends). They also have some pretty decent terra-cotta from time to time.

The key thing with a terra-cotta pot (or any other, for that matter) is to "flick" it with your finger, or bang on it with your knuckle, and see if it rings. If it goes "thunk", it's underfired and it won't hold up. If it rings, it probably doesn't have any cracks, and it's probably been fired hot enough to hold up through the California rainy season. Most of those really pretty terra-cotta pots from Mexico are underfired, and they won't hold up more than one or two seasons. Plus they're much more likely to crack, because they're very soft.

Great tip, imapigeon! Will your finger-flicking tip work for detecting frost resistant pots, too?

The pots I'm hunting for will be used in Lake County, where they will get some frost, so I was a bit worried about the underfired terracotta that's for sale out there.

If anyone knows of a good place for pots off 101 between SF and Ukiah, please let me know.

The finger-flicking will definitely help! And it will often detect cracks, too.

Pots that aren't "vitrified" (ringy) still have openings between the clay molecules. Those openings will trap moisture, and when the moisture expands when it freezes, it will crack the pots. Commercial terra-cotta is rarely fired to temperatures high enough to fully vitrify it, and---even though it may ring a bit----it's always more risky in a freezing climate than a glazed stoneware pot.

I've attended a few lectures by Steve Lorton from Sunset mag, and he refers to the Asian stoneware pots that are now widely available as "investments"---buy one a year if you can. He highly recommends the nice-looking plastic ones that will hold up for several years, if the higher-fired ceramic pots aren't an option in the budget. My problem is that it gets so bloody hot here that the plastic ones don't hold up well either!~ We get down to 18 degrees, and up to 110. I have some plastic, some stoneware, and some terra-cotta. My Mexican terra-cotta pots typically hold up for about 3 years before they start to fall apart, but I have some that have lasted longer and some that disintegrated the first winter.

My usual source for cheaper Vietnamese pots has sold her store! And I had another place that had really nice ones and it is gone too. So I have been buying some from Orchard Supply too, imapigeon. They are not as pretty as some but the prices are so reasonable! But a worker there told me as he lifted a bigger pot for me onto a flatbed, that one of the workers got sick while touching the pots so now they all were wearing gloves. Geesh!! LOL

So why would the Asian pots be an investment? Was he referring to the Vietnamese pots that I see all over?

I can't imagine how properly-fired pots could make someone sick....but at OSH they handle so many different kinds from so many places that anything's possible. Typically the Vietnamese ones are glazed and fired high, and shipped halfway across the world, of course. So they tend to be pretty pricey---but if they're good heavy glazed pots, they will last forever; hence the "investment" reference.

Steve Lorton does a marvelous lecture every year at Sunset Celebration where he uses pots and painted wooden circles and whatever and "morphs" this collection of things into various different configurations. I never miss it when I go---there are always things that are the same, but every time there's something different. He sticks a plant inside another container into a big pot, and then pulls the plant out and puts the wooden round (which hangs on the fence as a decorative object when the plant's in the container) on top of the pot and it becomes a table, and stuff like that. He also does stuff with plastic urns that he's painted to look just like cast-iron, and tells everyone that the giant "terra-cotta" pots outside Buckingham Palace are actually plastic! He's so fun to watch....

He inspired me to get a big pot to store gardening stuff, and in another one I keep fire-starting supplies for our chiminea. Both of them make great patio side-tables topped with pieces of thrift-store marble from crummy 70's indoor tables.

This message was edited Aug 28, 2007 9:57 AM

This message was edited Aug 28, 2007 9:58 AM

I have never been to the Sunset gardens. I really should go. So you have been there and had a great time?

Can we see your thrift store marble on top of a great pot table? Sounds intriguing!

I am on the prowl for a big ceramic pot that has black on it. I need it for a 15 gallon black bamboo I recently bought. I think I will go to a Orchards Supply in Freemont. I noticed they had lots of pots at that one.

Kell, I'll post a picture as soon as I clean it off LOL! For the past 2 weeks, I've been painting doors, and right now it's got paint trays, sandpaper, etc. sitting all over it....it is might handy as an exterior horizontal surface!~

I have also noticed big differences in pot-stock at various OSH locations. Summerwinds sometimes has pretty good deals on large pots, too, but you have to hit the right time. Sure wish I could learn to throw larger stuff on my wheel....sigh.

I was at Lumberman's in Santa Cruz over the weekend, and they had some very nice pots at reasonable prices---both terracotta and glazed. There were 4 of us in the SUV, and we had gotten WAAY too many plants at previous stops, so I have to go back next weekend for pots---LOL!

Just to throw in briefly.....a lot of things being imported seem to have some sort of coating, or sprayed with something. To prevent importation of insects?? I don't know but tires, some machinery, equipment, etc. imported from China has made my husband sick and when mentioning it at the store (don't want to mention their name), he was told by one of the workers there that she has to wear gloves at work for this reason.

gypsy, that's good to know. If the pots are properly glazed & fired, whatever coating they have would likely not penetrate the pot itself and could be washed off. But terra-cotta would be likely to absorb any kind of coating/spray, and if it's oil-based it could rub off the surface.

You might want to be careful in handling these items in taking home...wear gloves, wash them off well. The items we've gotten are metal- tools,equipment and rubber tires as well. It is not absorbed but stays on the surface to rub off on you. I'm sorry for the people who work with this stuff..how hazardous is that? And if is allowed for use in other countries, how sick does it make the people who live there? And those who use this stuff, whatever it is. As we now seem to have to be cautious with foods,etc. coming in from other countries, we may have to consider a lot of other products.