Do terra cotta pots freeze & crack if left outside in the winter?

I live in the northeastern United States, where the weather can drop to about zero degrees Farenheit. I plan on placing terra cotta pots in a flower bed in our backyard where the soil is particularly rocky. (The pots will be mostly in the ground with the top of the pots at the surface level.) So, knowing this, will the pots hold up year after year if kept outside all year long? Thanks in advance!

Do terra cotta pots freeze %26amp; crack if left outside in the winter?
We are in zone 4 and it can get to 30 below zero but we like the look of terra cotta pots in the garden. We simply bring them in for the winter.


If you like the look of terra cotta there are a number of plastic pots that look so much like terra cotta that you would have to pick them up to tell the difference.


As for plants we keep a large number of perennials in gallon sized plastic pots and they winter over perfectly well and we keep our bonsai trees buried in plastic pots for the winter and re-pot them in terra cotta for the summer.


All terra cotta is not created equal. We make terra cotta bird feeders and houses and they have never broken and some of them are more than 10 years old. The secrete is a drain hole in the bottom. Plus they are fired a bit higher than most terra cotta to make them less porous.


Good luck.
Reply:I have found that it is hit and miss and they can crack at freezing or below. Sometimes they crack and sometimes they don't. I think it has to do with the temperature at which they are fired. I think you would have to protect them when a hard frosy was due or simply go for imitation plastic terra cotta. I know it is not the same but you can get good pots that look the part. Standard sized terra otta pots are really quite cheap anyway (well they are over here in the UK) so why not give it a go and see how they do for a year.
Reply:It depends on whether the terracotta clay mixture had a flexible additive at manufacture. Most that will tolerate frost are marked as such. If not, then you can assume that they will crack when water freezes. However, if you sink them under insulation (i.e. weed membrane and a good organic top mulch) they may be OK and besides, even if they crack, (providing you don't plan on lifting them) they will still form a root barrier and will remain in place year after year as you have planned. Even if cracked they will continue to contain the good planting soil /environment if left undisturbed. Good luck :-)
Reply:Yeah, terra cotts pots will crack, break or even shatter into lots of little bits. I think you can buy pots that are frost resistant. If temperatures are 0 Fahrenheit (-17 C) I doubt if even they would last long though, even if they were to be mostly submerged.
Reply:yes they sometimes do, you can get frost freeones which here - hope this helps, try searching on frost resistant terra cotta on Google and there is a variety of online shops selling them. http://www.topiarygardens.co.uk/Terracot...
Reply:Chances are pretty good the pots will crack. Terra cotta is not waterproof, so the water will freeze, expand and crack your pots.
Reply:They will crack if left in an upright state. I turn mine upside down because I dont have the room to store them. They have made it through the last three winters. I am in zone 6.
Reply:I dump the soil in mine and store them under a tarp along with a lot of my other yard decor.
Reply:yes