Cachepot

Cachepot in Art-Nouveau style

A cachepot (/ˈkæʃpɒt, -poʊ/^[1], French: [kaʃpo]) is a French term for a decorative container or "overpot" for a plant and its growing pot, acting as a saucer for indoors.

Origin

The word cachepot is French, from the French word, cacher, meaning "to hide" and translates as "overpot" in English^[2]. Cachepots are vase-like containers to aesthetically hide a growing pot holding the plant itself ^[3] to provide greenery indoors.

A cachepot is a miniature version of the traditional French jardinière: a large decorative container for plants and/or flowers. Where a jardinière is meant to sit on the ground outdoors, a cachepot is meant to be displayed on a tabletop, mantel, or shelf indoors.^[4]

Terminology

The pot or container a plant grows directly within is called a “grow pot”^[5]. The cachepot or overpot not only hides the grow pot, but keeps the plant such as orchids, separate for air to circulate.

Design

A cachepot can be of glass, ceramic, iron, tin or other metal, impervious material and without drainage holes. It is often made from a raw material such as clay, disfigured by spots of water or fertilizer for a rustic appearance. To protect surfaces, the pot has no hole at its base for discharging excess water, so it does not stain the furniture underneath it, while it catches any soil or drips from the potplant.

However, such a design presents a risk for the plant, whose roots can rot if left immersed in water. This means the cachepot should be drained after watering in situ or the potplant watered separately then replaced after being left to drain.

Gifting

Cachepots have been given as gifts from the former United States president Bill Clinton to foreign visitors.^[6] The Clinton gift was a custom-designed Tiffany silver cachepot given to many visiting heads of state.^[7]

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cachepots.

• Flowerpot

References