Those empty flowerpots sitting beside the garage may look like one fall chore you can safely postpone until spring, but freezing weather can turn an expensive container into a pile of cracked pottery. The problem isn’t simply cold temperatures; moisture that gets into porous materials can freeze, expand, and damage the pot as temperatures fluctuate. The University of Illinois specifically warns that water inside the pores of pottery can expand when frozen and crack the container. Proper winter pot storage can prevent that damage, and most of the work involves little more than emptying, cleaning, drying, and protecting containers before repeated freezes arrive. If you’ve invested in good planters over the years, an hour of fall cleanup can save you from replacing them next spring.
