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A very simple way to create elegance outside when you are adding potted plants to your porches, patios or focal points in the garden is to choose containers made of the same material. You don’t have to have every container in the same material but certainly the majority!

I use terra cotta because it is the classic garden pottery and has practical advantages in addition to its universal availability. Its understated elegance lets the flowers and foliage stand out. Plants are healthier when the soil can breathe through the porous walls and it is easy for excess water to drain out through the walls as well as the drainage hole in the bottom. It is almost impossible to overwater.

If you do indeed choose terra cotta, you will find so many sizes, shapes and styles to choose from. There are urns shapes, wall pockets, tall bulb pots, flat sided geometric shapes, round tubs, some with classic fluting, foliage, flower and animal designs and more incised or added to the pot surfaces. And, of course, there is always the classic  rimmed flower pot available  in every size from1” to 18” or more at every local nursery or garden shop.

It takes discipline to resist all of the shinny, colorful containers available at nurseries and garden shops, but actually these containers look better on the store shelves there than they will in your garden. When there are so many colors and materials in your containers, these compete with the color and splendor of the flowers and foliage. Let your plants play the staring roles in your garden and learn to have discipline in selecting unified containers. Practicing this use of repetition, one of elements of design, will create a pleasing and unified result in your garden landscape.