Picking your creature's hair
The pot
- Opening
- ⌀ 6 cm
- Depth
- 7 cm
- Nursery pot that fits
- up to ⌀ 6 cm
Creatures arrive without a plant, and this guide helps you pick one that fits. Every creature is built on the same yogurt pot, but each is shaped by hand, so the little clay collar around the top can make the opening a millimetre or two narrower.
Plants that fit
These are the ones we bought and tried, from IKEA and Bauhaus, real and artificial.
Planting it
Leave it in the nursery pot. This is what we do. Drop the plant, pot and all, into the creature; the rim hides below the clay. To water, lift it out, water it over the sink, let it drip, put it back.
Or plant straight into the creature, for succulents and small cacti only. Gravel at the bottom, then soil, then the plant. Water a tablespoon at a time and let the soil dry out between waterings.
If the nursery pot doesn’t fit
The plastic is thin and kitchen scissors go through it.
Try it first
Lower the plant into the creature. If it sits below the rim, you are done.
most 6 cm pots go straight in
Too tall
Hold the pot against the creature and mark where the clay rim comes to. Cut the top off a little below the mark.
snip through the thick lip first, then follow the line
Too wide
Cut three or four slits from the top down to halfway, so the walls overlap and the pot squeezes in. Or cut one triangle out of the side, point down, like the pot in the photo below.
leave the plant in while you cut, the roots hold the shape
Watering
A pot this small dries out fast and floods just as fast. A splash every week or two for succulents and cacti, a little more often for leafy plants, always with the plant lifted out so the water can drain. Windowsill yes, radiator no. Turn the creature now and then so the hair grows towards the room.
Rather not shop at all? Tick Fake plant at checkout and we put an artificial one in the parcel. Show us the haircut on Instagram, @the.olennot. No creature yet? They are all here.