Planters big enough for a real topiary.
Most planters sold online stop at about 20 inches, which is the point where a grown topiary starts to look strangled. These begin at 23 inches across and run to 59 — thirty-nine planters in eighty finishes, from $1,010, the tallest just over four feet before anything is planted in it. Thirty-three of them are glazed pottery; the rest are fibreglass, ceramic and one unglazed terracotta urn.
Twenty-five are single pieces and fourteen come as graduated sets of two, three or four, which is the usual way to plant a doorway or a terrace: one tall piece and its smaller echoes. We buy them in rather than make them, and we chose the range around the topiary we grow, so the sizes line up with real plants rather than with a catalogue. If you are matching one to a plant, start with what size planter a topiary needs.
Everything here travels by freight on a pallet, and the delivery is not charged at checkout. We work out what it costs to get the piece to you, tell you the figure, and agree it before anything ships.
Live boxwood topiary · Artificial topiary · Preserved topiary · Boxwood in a planter
How to choose a planter big enough for what you are planting
A planter is one of the few things in a garden you buy once and then live with for twenty years, and almost all of the regret comes from the same place: it looked right on a screen and arrived too small. These are the three things worth understanding before you choose.
Read the measurements carefully — the first number is not the opening
Every planter here is listed as a width and a height, and the width is measured across the widest point of the body. On a straight-sided pot that is also roughly the opening. On a jar it is not: the shoulders draw in above the belly, and the mouth can be little more than half the width you are reading. One of the jars in this range is 39.5 inches across the body and 21 inches at the mouth.
The maker publishes a true inside diameter for only four of these planters, so on the rest we would rather tell you that than print a number we cannot stand behind. If the fit matters — and with a mature plant it usually does — tell us the piece you intend to plant and we will measure the opening before you order rather than estimate it. The full method, including why a 39.5 inch planter can have a 21 inch mouth, is in what size planter a topiary needs.
Proportion: how tall a plant suits which planter
As a working rule, a planted piece looks settled when the plant stands roughly one and a half times the height of the container. Much shorter and the pot dominates; much taller and the whole thing reads as top-heavy, which matters in a windy position as well as visually.
Remember to add the two together. A four-foot jar with a five-foot topiary in it is a nine-foot object, which suits a double-height entrance and overwhelms a normal doorway. Several of the tall pieces in this range are worth standing empty for exactly that reason — they hold a corner on their own. If one is going in planted, planting a live topiary in a planter covers the depth, the mix and the first watering.
What the finishes do, and what is not a fault
Most of these are glazed pottery: a fired clay body under a glaze, which is why the surfaces vary the way they do. Two of the Metropolis pieces are fibreglass and noticeably lighter for their size, and the Pithari urn is unglazed terracotta, which is porous, dries faster and weathers with age rather than staying as it arrived.
Three things people mistake for damage are characteristic of the ranges they belong to. The high-gloss Le Beau glazes develop fine surface crazing as the glaze and the clay cool at different rates; it does not weaken the piece, though it is worth keeping away from sudden temperature changes. Tuscan Sun and Château de Maisons pieces are finished with bare clay left at the rim and the base, unglazed on purpose for contrast. And the textured glazes — Aegean and Coral — carry small pits and craters that imitate natural stone, which is the intended surface rather than a flaw. What each material does to a plant, rather than to the look, is in planter materials for live plants.
One planter, or a set
Roughly a third of this range comes as graduated sets of two, three or four rather than as single pieces. A set is not simply a discount on buying separately: the sizes are cut to relate to each other, which is what makes a group beside a door or down a flight of steps read as deliberate rather than as three pots that happened to be to hand.
Buy a single piece when it has to hold a position on its own, and a set when the planting runs along something — a frontage, a path, a terrace edge. If you are unsure whether a position wants one or three, send us a photograph and we will tell you what we would do.
Living with a planter this size
Everything here arrives on a pallet, and a piece three feet across is not something one person moves across a garden afterwards. Decide where it is going before it arrives, and if that means crossing soft ground or going through a gate, tell us and we will check the dimensions against the route. The fibreglass pieces are the exception and are considerably lighter than their size suggests, which is worth knowing for a roof terrace or a balcony where weight is limited. Once it is planted, keeping the plant in it alive is a separate subject: boxwood in a planter.
Questions about large planters
Which planter fits the topiary I am buying?
The published measurements are the widest point of the body and the height — the maker gives a true opening diameter for only four of these, and on a jar shape the mouth can be half the width of the belly. So match on scale first: every topiary page here suggests planters that suit a piece that size, and measuring an opening against a root ball explains the trap in full. Before you order, tell us the exact piece and we will measure the opening rather than estimate it.
Do you sell these planted, or empty?
Empty. The planter and the topiary are separate purchases, which is deliberate — it lets you plant something you already own, or replace a container without replacing the plant. If you want both, add them together from any topiary page and they arrive as one order.
How much is delivery on something this size?
It depends on the piece and on where it is going, so it is not charged at checkout. A planter this size travels by freight on its own pallet; once you order we work out what that costs to your address, tell you the figure and agree it with you before the piece ships. Ask beforehand if you would rather know first — we will find out.
Are the sets one planter or several?
Several. A set of three is three planters in graduated sizes — the dimensions of every piece are listed on the product page. Fourteen of the thirty-nine here are sets; the rest are single pieces.
What are they made of?
Most of them are glazed pottery — a fired clay body under a glaze — which covers the Le Beau, Tuscan Sun and Château de Maisons ranges. The Seasons planter is ceramic, the two Metropolis box and cube planters are fibreglass, and the Pithari urn is unglazed terracotta. Two pieces the maker does not describe at all are marked as such on their own pages rather than guessed at. What each material does to a living plant is in planter materials for live plants.
Will they survive a winter outdoors?
That depends on the piece and on your zone, and it is not something we will generalise about across thirty-nine planters from seven ranges. Tell us where you are and which one you are looking at, and we will find out rather than guess. For the plant rather than the pot, boxwood in a planter covers overwintering a container.
