Hello, my name is Linda and I'm addicted to painting pots red, lol. Wash the pots with soap and water (or vinegar or bleach), then let them dry completely. Sand ceramic and smooth plastic pots just to sand the shine off so the paint will stick better (wipe the dust off with a slightly damp rag). Zinsser Bullseye latex primer works nice, and can be painted over in less than an hour. Any decent brand exterior paint will work fine over it. Interior products don't hold up outside. I never paint in the hot sun. Being a midnight gardener helps, but in the daytime they're painted and dried in the shade. They can be tucked under a table or anything that will shade them. Latex dries fast. The inside top, rim, and most of the outside can be painted. Let dry, then turn it upside down and paint what's left. Sometimes, they get 2 coats. When I paint porous pots, like terra cotta, I seal them inside with car undercoating spray (Pep Boys has it). Black roof patch that is brushed on also works, but is probably messier. Use this a day before painting. This should keep the water from seeping through and lifting the paint off the outside of the pot. Prime and paint just like the plastic pots. I paint the top few inches of the inside of the pot. The car undercoating can be painted over (not sure about the roof patch). I use paint brushes or sponge rollers, depending on the pot. If the pot has a raised design, use a contrasting color and brush it lightly with a somewhat dry paintbrush. If it's not dark enough, go over it a few more times to make the color deeper so the pattern shows more. I also like oil base (alkyd) industrial paint. It stinks, and takes about 18 hours to dry, but looks nice and is very tough. Metal pots can be painted with this without primer. I usually don't let pots sit in water, but have painted some pot saucers with the same paints, which have had water in them for at least a few weeks and the paint held up just fine. The weather here is mild, so most of mine get planted on the same day, but don't get watered for a day. Linda

I've seen the different colored duct tapes and have also thought about doing the mosaicing with them. thanks for the reminder..they weren't expensive at all, either. than again..a layer of tufa over the plastic urn pots would be nice..I have a couple of them in the backyard and was going to just wash them and plant fuchsias. Becky .(*_*).

A whole lot of years ago when I first began propagating cuttings heavily, I would grow them on in one gallon cans. To prevent them from drying out or frying, I would group them together under one of the trees in the front yard, surround them with large rocks and fill inbetween them with horse manure, even inside the cans so I could easily water them, keep them fed, cool and moist. I never lost one, they all developed beautifully and none of the cans reared their ugly sides. I know you can't do that with five gallon and larger ones, but similar methods can be used if you don't want added expense and products you're going to either have to give or throw away after you're finished with them. The mulch idea should work well as it would keep down the weeds, improve your soil and keep the cans from overheating and prematurely drying out. Kim

Walnutcreek, it's not so much that I posted a technique to refinish pots. It's just that through the years I've posted a lot of pictures of my garden showing the pots that have been painted and/or antiqued. Basically I paint a pot, plastic or clay, with latex paint (much of it is paint that has been returned to paint stores and sells for 2 or 4 dollars a can) and then I thin another color paint (small containers of many colors are available at hobby stores) with water for the 'antiquing'. It's just brushed on and wiped it off with a damp paper towel. Some of the pots are ordinary black nursery pots and some are plastic pots that have a design to make them look like clay pots. Anything goes, just keep trying to get the effect you want. It helps to look at some 'pretty' pots at garden centers or on line. Jim mentions 'Fusion' spray paint which is formulated to stay on plastic pots. I haven't tried it yet. Ordinary paint flakes off shiny plastic pots if they are not roughed up with sandpaper first. Wishing you the best with your pot painting. You can't mess up a pot because you can always paint it over again.