Despite its widespread appeal, the classic terracotta pot remains one of the most affordable planting containers. Your local home and garden center should offer a variety of sizes for a few dollars a piece, and often this time of year local thrift store are practically giving them away.
Try grouping clusters of terracotta pots for a potted herb garden right on your dining room table or kitchen window sill, or devote a whole sideboard or bookcase to your pots for indoor potting shed appeal.
Since I'm not especially adept at actually keeping my plants alive, this year I'm sticking to a these long-lasting, easy-care plants.
Images: 1: Trad Home, 2: Tom Scheerer, 3: Margaret Carter via The Washington Post, 4: Rue, 5: Atlanta Bartlett Easy Elegance via delight by design, 6: Rue, 7: S.R. Gambrel, 8: design*sponge, 9-10: Martha Stewart
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Yes, Terracotta is very pretty...
...but it's also incredibly pourous.
Don't leaving a potted plant on a wooden, laminate, stone or concrete table, shelf, windowsill or countertop for any length of time without an impermeable porcelain/glass saucer or metal tray beneath unless you want to deal with warping, bubbling or staining.
bepsf is right - I have almost exclusively terracotta pots, and I've switched over to using silver trays and platters instead of the terracotta saucers. I'm always on the lookout for them now when I go to a flea market or goodwill.
Another thing related to their porousness is that they dry out pretty fast, especially small pots. I've stopped using my smaller terracotta pots after forgetting to water a few too many times.
@sassyladie- i keep the plant in the plastic pot, and put that inside the terracotta pot to get the look without it soaking up all the water in the soil. still have to put a plate underneath, though.
I have been eyeing on these topiatries from restoration hardware.
http://www.restorationhardware.com/catalog/product/product.jsp?productId=prod1679219&categoryId=cat1701086
@annieh, when you keep the plant in a plastic pot, does the terracotta one get the patina that it does when you have the plant directly in the terracotta pots? That's part of the appeal of the pots. I have all my thicker leaved plants in terracotta pots, and they look better & better over time.