Surreal - So Real - Performance Planters

There is a plant in our kitchen that blooms tiny peach color flowers that my husband has nurtured over the last eleven years. It always sat on the kitchen table where it gets total sunshine for most of the day. Since we redid the kitchen in August, we thought we should move the plant out to the patio garden. We saw a bunch of them in the Smithsonian gardens. But when we asked the caretaker if these plants can survive in the winter, she said no! So with the new cabinet color in the kitchen, we searched for a new pot for the plant at our neighborhood Gingkos. We found something quite interesting. The planter looked like a birch branch, but was as light as styrofoam. It's called the Surreal, or "so real" planter. It's made in Texas using birch trees limbs as the mold and then painted so as to look like the real thing. It was also the perfect color. We also got a saucer to put underneath it. So we tested the absorbency and leakage of the material by filling it with water. The last thing we wanted was to have water stains on the newly painted table. There was no evidence of leakage after an overnight trial. So my husband cut down the plant to size and repotted it in to the "so real" planter. It looks to be doing very well in its new container, but I'm sure it is happy just to be back inside. We are too! It just adds a bit of whimsy to the space. We missed it being there anyway.