I save everything, lol! Too much so really. But I use a lot of those old nursery pots for my rose seedlings as they grow up and I never know what size I'll need or want. So I end up saving it all! I reuse the flat trays too. I look for both the ones with drainage holes and the ones without. The solid ones get used in the house over the winter and the ones with drainage holes get used outside in the summer for the seedlings. I even save the nursery tags to reuse. The backs are usually empty or have very small print so I just cut them up and write over them with permanent marker to tag my seedlings. Waste not, want not!

I have hundreds of nursery containers. I don't think I've ever thrown one away - not normally a hoarder, but these just seem like they are too useful to not keep.

Over the past few years I've only reused a small portion, but I'm sure happy to have them when I need them. I just potted my Heirloom bands into 5 gallon (big expectations!) rose pots. When I find gifts growing in the ground - plants that have either reseeded or self-propogates themselves, I often grab them up and pot them until they are established enough to put somewhere else. I love having the size selection of pots. Plus I have new cuttings to repot soon, rose seeds that I'll be planting in pots, and hopefully not too long from now will needs pots for hybridized roses.

But... I haven't found uses except for repotting plants in them.

I used to save them, but DH really wanted a cleaned out yard- so they are gone, except for the larger ones.
I discovered last year that most nurseries will sell you their BIG pots (used) for cheap, especially the nurseries who contract out landscaping.

Strawberry, although I am no great shakes at starting seeds, they sell trays that allow you to heat the bottoms of your seed trays to encourage the roots to go down also. I don't know if this works for rose cuttings or not-- but thought I'd mention it because the idea is the same--"go down little rooties".

I to save the band pots. Here in Florida the shipping makes band pots from the west coast very expensive. I think an east coast source for these would do well.

I wish I had saved the tags like Seil does. Yes, waste not, want not. My neighbor saved the orange flags from electric company and the white flags from gas company when they marked the buried utilities lines. Then he put these flags around pepper plants. They kept the bunnies away in windy Chicagoland.

I should get those cheap shiny plastic windmill and put them next to young roses ... maybe they will scare bunnies away. I put Irish Spring soap next to young roses last year. At night I heard a loud choking, hacking, coughing, and vomitting sound outside. In the morning I found bits of soap all over the yard, and the large chunk at the end of my yard. That was a lot of clean-up!

Welcome "home" Strawberryhill! You've been missed! I admit my back yard looks as if I recycle nursery containers. I do, when I collect too many and there are a few local nurseries who appreciate them. I use fifteen gallon sizes not only for really growing things larger, but also as garden trash cans. They're easy to drag along to collect prunings and weeds. Smaller ones like five gallons are easy to drag with you while dead heading. I've also cut the bottoms out of five gallon cans to use as cylinders around new bare roots until they are well settled.

There is a short, but steep slope out back I wished to make use of. I cut the bottoms and one quarter of the sides out of a number of fifteen gallon cans then set them in the ground with the cut away side on the uphill side. I planted larger shrubs in them to have more room for them. The roots grow out through the bottoms and cut sides and permit me to add another dozen plants to the limited level ground. Kim

I have my band pots, the red party cups for starting veggies, and of course 1-5g. We had tons more, but gave away stacks of my dads hoarded ones years ago.

I rounded up half a dozen 15gs today. Going to fill them with drain holes and use them in the gopher zone and in the chicken zone for roses.

We also have boxes of clay pots in a variety of sizes, suppose I should look and see which are really vintage and which are just kind of old.

Some nurseries are thankful for the used pots, one even pays for the bigger and badged DA pots.

So many good ideas for using old nursery pots! I save them, too. I usually have far too many in autumn and have to take a lot to the recycling station. I prefer square pots as they save space in trays and planting boxes. I use big bottomless pots for mints and other invasive plants. I plant everything in plastic pots and put them in terracotta containers in the garden or other better looking pots for house plants. I collect color coded hyacinth pots (they come in white, pink, and blue) so I can keep track of different seedlings without having to mark the pots. I may sow dianthus seeds in pink pots, for instance, and note this on a list.

I thought about you and this thread while potting up some of this winter's cuttings into the band pots, Strawberry, yesterday afternoon.

I wish I'd kept all of my old pickle and mayo jars, too, instead of putting them into the recycle bin as I just did some cuttings by sticking them into the dirt and putting jars or bottles over them and I didn't have enough. I used clear plastic cups for the others but don't know if they are heavy enough.

Pieces of old stockings are good for tying roses up and also agree with Seil about re using plastic labels. Used gallon milk cartons are great for starting seeds in. Punch holes in the bottom, cut in half with the handle left as a hinge; instant greenhouse. Same with the two litre plastic soda containers. Left over newspaper and cardboard for making beds. Unless you have bermuda grass then nevermind about that. I've spray painted the cans that spaghetti sauce and veggies come in to use as give away vases. Also used toilet paper tubes stuffed with dirt as a container for seeds. You can make containers out of folded newspaper also; just plant them and the paper dissolves.

I get tickled to think about a great way nature allows us to recycle - making a new plant out of rose prunings. Old leaves breaking down to make compost for the next year's growth.

Those are real obvious things I do and think about that probably everyone else does too, and I'm always on the look out for another way to use what I have.

I like Gean's tip of putting seeds inside toilet paper tube and plant them. I smashed tomatoes seeds on a paper towel, dried them, and will plant them this spring.

My sister sent me a link with neat tips: like use a hanging shoe rack to store cleaning supplies. Use a walnut to polish cracks on your table. Use toothpaste to shine your car headlights. Use a can opener to open those hard-plastic packs over toys & other items.

Clean out an old tan bottle and put your keys in at the beach. My friend had his short stolen at the beach. If your sink is too small to fit a bucket, use a clean dustpan to guide water into a container sitting below ... the dustpan catches water and it pours down from the narrow handle.

I have hard water and have to unscrew my shower head to soak in strong vinegar, to unclog the holes. I love this tip, it saves the hassle of unscrewing the shower head: wrap a thick plastic bag, filled with strong vinegar, over the shower head and rubber band the neck. Leave it over night, the shower head will flow better in the morning.

Put a panty hose over a vacuum tube when you lost an earring, it will be stuck on the panty hose, rather than inside the vacuum. Use nail polish to identify different keys.

I have used old one and five gallon pots sunk in the ground between the plants to make sure that fish emulsion,etc. didn't just run down the slope. I used to drop granular fertilizer in there as well. If you can get the five gallon sizes, they hold a fair amount of water as well. When I was fighting the rust battles and didn't want leaves to get wet I would use a water wand and fill the 5 gallon pots up a few times. The water wand head went down in the bottom and I never got any splashing. I don't have too many left because I use them to pot up divisions, bulbs, and old rose starts to sell at my spring plant/ garage sale. And any 15 gallons I may have get taken right away for roses or camellias.

I prefer the green pots over the black ones. Some of the pots have records of the different residents written in different colors of china marker- the name of a rose, then a camellia, then a plum tree and then a rose again. I like the band sized pots as well and have a little collection going. I hate sending a pot that isn't cracked to a landfill. I remember buying annuals by the half dozen in a flat. They were cut for you by the nurseryman and put in a cardboard box. Now everything comes in plastic 6 packs and half flats.