Not an exciting name, but descriptive, read on……….

No surprise, flower pots abound at the Flower & Garden Festival.  As I’ve been walking around these last several weeks, a few floral spots caught my eye.  Here you go with a mini tour of World Showcase.

I LOVE all of the pots at the Italy pavilion.  And this photo is not even half of the pots in this one display along the water!

Now turn around 180 degrees and you see this flower tower surrounded with more pots.

If you haven’t visited Epcot, the structures in the background won’t mean much, but they remind me of our trip to Venice last year.  It was a fun time with good friends.  🙂    Okay, back to World Showcase…………

 

Around a corner in the Italy pavilion, this little flower nook can be found.  There’s a bench nearby-sorry, when taking the photo, I deliberately cropped it out (Argh – photo-shop remorse).   This would be a great place for grandma & grandpa to relax while family is rushing around here & there, trying to fit everything in their visit.  It’s tree-covered & shady, away from the throngs guest traffic yet close enough to enjoy the ambiance of the park and take the take to smell the flowers!

It was about this time of wandering when the wide variety of flower pots really stoked my (scientific) interest, thus I did a little research and now I’m sharing.

• Terracotta is refined clay, formed to a desired shape, dried then placed in a kiln to be ‘fired’.
• If a potter’s wheel is used, this clay item is now called ‘earthenware’ pottery instead of terracotta.
• Ancient Greeks (3000-1500 BC), India, Pre-colonial West Africa and the Chinese were using terracotta as sculptures and building material way before anyone else.

Okay, back to the tour. I loved these square pots and they are found in several different pavilions.   The second photo is near the Morocco pavilion.

I can’t even imagine the skill and work that went into these round pots with sculptured faces (or the angst of delivering them – yikes).  Or the required handling once potted and placed in this garden near the Germany pavilion.

• In the 18th century unglazed terracotta became fashionable for pots and sculptures, before that time a glaze was utilized. 
• The iron content of the clay, reacting with oxygen, gives the pot its reddish color.
• Terracotta pots can also be yellow, orange, buff, red,  pink, grey, brown and white-colored.

It would be so boring if all pots were terracotta……………and this Festival isn’t boring.  The Japan pavilion showcased a different type of growing called Kokedama without any pot per se.

Now here’s another way to use trash cans and metal buckets…………

The gardens in the United Kingdom pavilion showcase elements of a cup of tea and what better way to highlight those plants than in a (gigantic) teacup.  These measure approx 2 feet tall by roughly 18″ wide – very cute.  Each of the pots has a tea tag, listing the plants involved in the tea profiles.

Of course, growing can happen vertically, as seen in these wooden towers.  Herbs mix it up with flowers to create a pretty and functional planting (if you cook).  😉

There are other extra touches as you wander the park.  The iron railing (preventing guests from sitting on top of the ledge) also allowed for more flower pots.  Loved capturing the Eifel tower in the background (that was planned, ha!).

Okay, so while there are numerous elements going on during the Festival, I wanted to feature one of the stars……………….the flowers!

A nice way to end this post is with this red, white & blue flower pot from the American Adventure pavilion.

Ginny