Pottery Knife: “Brown is also a color”

With the appearance of seeds, dead foliage, plant material and withered flowers, the end of the garden cycle has started. Many fixed plants which are not winter green will retreat beneath the soil in the beginning of winter while the top part will die off even before the start of winter. Autumn is characterized by the moment to cut plants to a smaller size while winter represents a period where gardeners wait for spring. But as the renowned Dutch garden architect Piet Oudolf, known for the four-season-garden, states: “Brown is also a color”.

Plants that have hibernated beneath the soil will slowly grow out of their winter resting spots during spring. Fixed plants grow from the middle outward, which means that the youngest and fastest-growing parts of the plants are at the outside of the cluster making the center less prone to growth. As soon as this happens it is time to rejuvenate the plant bij tearing or parting the plant. 

To part or tear a plant, it must first be removed from its pot. However, this can present its own challenges when the roots of the plants have grown into the porous parts of a pot. To cut the plant out of the pot, we have developed the Pottery knife in 2019 which was shortlisted in 2020 for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show!

1. To cut the roots the knife can used with a forward and a backward motion; for this reason both, sides of the blade has been sharpened.
2. The handle has been constructed in a way that your hand does not slip onto the blade with the forward or backward motion.
3. Because there are so many variations in pots and containers, the knife is quite long to be able to deal with many of the different sizes and shapes.
4. The end of the blade is almost squared off with a shard edge. If the plants roots have grown through the excess water hole, you can still easily cut these roots.