...and classical urns and pillars

These too are made from lightweight GRP.   Further details will be on the plantcontainershop.com website soon.

Antique style fountains

Fountains (from the Latin "fons" or "fontis", a source or spring) originally were purely functional and provided drinking water and bathing water from a conveniently placed outlet. The ancient Greeks and Romans love of all things decorative soon lent itself to designing ornate functional fountains. The Romans developed this even further and by using water pressure from water sources at higher levels created ornate water gardens with fountains spouting water high in to the air. Rome had around forty monumental fountains at one stage and the fountains, and public baths, were fed by nine aqueducts.

By using one of my favourite materials, fibreglass or GRP, classicly styled wall mounted and floor mounted fountains have been faithfully recreated. These lightweight, easily installed, and economical water features are supplied with a small recirculating pump and need no plumbing. Complementing planters are also available as you will have seen in earlier posts.

Lead style planters

As promised: a post on lead style GRP or fibreglass planters.   Lead style plant containers or faux lead planters can be finished in 'new look' lead, aged lead and weathered bronze.   They can be supplied in many other colours and finishes although the design and features of the planters are best suited to the aforementioned finishes.  A selection of the planters and finishes available are shown below.   I have included weathered copper twice as I wanted to show how realistic it appears and also show the beautiful patterning on the new Fairlight planter.

Modern lead style planters

As mentioned in the previous post, I will shortly be adding some images of classic lead and antique style planters.   These are a fraction of the cost and weight of the original lead planters.   One specialist company has just started making a lead style planter with a modern slant: the Fairlight.   This design was inspired by the large floral prints available on wallcoverings and fabrics and, as with all GRP or fibreglass plant containers can be finished in lead style, weathered bronze and almost every other colour.

Classic terracotta style urns

Just added to the existing selection of terracotta style planters on the http://www.plantcontainershop.com/ website are these classical styled urns and planters.   The moulds were taken from original terracotta vessels and faithfully replicate each crease and crevice.   The original vase that large Sussex urn is based upon took four men to lift!   The GRP (glass reinforced plastic or fibreglass) copy weighs just 15Kg or 33lb in the old money.   Some prefer the feel of real terracotta and with the smaller urns the price difference may be slight and transportation may be quite easy.  

The larger real terracotta containers are extremely heavy, however, and can easily be damaged so choosing GRP may be the best choice for both ease of handling and for durability.   They make more economical sense too.  

As these are made from GRP, the finishes are almost unlimited.  

These particular urns and planters look great in terracotta finish but are available in lead and weathered bronze finishes and in any BS or RAL colour.

The large terracotta style trough shown here is fitted with an optional cover that converts the trough to a bench with storage.

There are large plant containers that can be used as a water tank or water butt and some that can have a wall plate attached that converts the water tank in to a fountain.

Coming soon to this website: GRP planters made in moulds taken from original lead planters.

Magic table cloths

Are you setting up a restaurant but have nearly gone over budget?   Well you can cut out the cost of tables by using these free-standing tablecloths.   Made in the same way as many of the plant containers available at http://www.plantcontainershop.com/, these appear to be draped over an invisible table.   After a few glasses of wine, diners may suddenly look down and think  "Now wait a minute..."

One slight problem though: the customers won't be able to move the cloth to put their legs underneath.   Perhaps these are best suited as a display table for desserts and the like.

Small illuminated plant containers

Most of the illuminated items I have shown so far have been in the medium to large range.  There are some desk top sized illuminated planters although they are a special order from plantcontainershop.com and need to be part of a larger order to be economically viable.

  

Still pushing those lights....

Yes, I have gone light crazy!   In common with several of my recent posts, this article is illuminated.   I love them all, but realise that if I decorated my house with many of these products I would be watching the electricity meter go round from behind a pair of sunglasses.   They are, of course, fitted with low energy lamps and are available unlit in a range of colours.

Remote controlled plant containers

Just added to the range of illuminated plant containers at www.illuminated planters.com are these remotely controlled colour changing led planters.   There are seven different colours and twenty programmable settings.   As with the standard illuminated plant containers, the planting depth is relatively shallow to allow for the void that creates the lighting effect.   You can use the flower pot shaped planter as a wine cooler although there are purpose made illuminated wine coolers available.