Flower Pot


 * For the version in Plants vs. Zombies: All Stars, see Flower Pot (PvZ: AS).

Flower Pot is a plant and environment modifier that allows the player to place a plant on an otherwise unplantable surface, much like the Lily Pad's use in Pool levels. While it is intended for use on the roof, they can still be planted on a regular ground tile, but they cannot be placed on Lily Pads. Spikeweeds and Spikerocks cannot be planted on it, because zombies don't walk over them.

Origins
It is based on the flower pot in real life, a place to put flowers in, similar to how plants can be planted inside flower pots. The flower in its name also refers to the fact that flowers can also be planted inside it, and the pot in its name refers to the fact that it is a terracotta pot.

Suburban Almanac entry
Flower Pot

Flower Pots let you plant on the roof.

Special: allows you to plant on the roof

"I'm a pot for planting. Yet I'm also a plant. HAS YOUR MIND EXPLODED YET?"

Cost: 25

Recharge: fast

Plants vs. Zombies
The player should first place the Flower Pot on a roof tile, and then place a plant in it. Flower Pots cannot attack, and do not do anything outside of the Roof levels other than having a slight resistance to chewing. Flower Pots are required to plant any explosives like Cherry Bombs or Doom-shrooms on Roof levels. If a Doom-shroom detonates on top of it, it is destroyed, in addition of creating a crater.

One of the most durable anti-zombie barriers in the game combining a Flower Pot or Lily Pad, a Pumpkin, and a Tall-nut. Together, these plants which will hold a single regular-speed zombie for upwards of four minutes which is even longer when combined with movement-restricting plants such as Snow Peas and Winter Melons. However, this provides less protection for its sun than a standalone Tall-nut.

In the Nintendo DS-exclusive mini-game Air Raid it has wings and a rudder. Gatling Pea sits in it as it tries to destroy Dr. Zomboss's Zombot.

Note: Spikeweeds, Spikerocks, and aquatic plants cannot be planted in Flower Pots, nor can Grave Busters.

Plants vs. Zombies Adventures
Flower Pot does not actually appear in gameplay. Instead, it replaces seed packets in holding plants while you are in the game. The number of seed slots you have is the number of Flower Pots on the bottom of the screen. You can buy more Flower Pots using Zombucks.

Plants vs. Zombies 2
Like in Plants vs. Zombies Adventures, Flower Pot does not actually appear in gameplay. But it is seen without its face and is made to plant any plant available (and so far the ones the player has unlocked), except instant use plants (like Cherry Bomb, Hurrikale, and Jalapeno). The plant on the Flower Pot can boosted for use on one level if they choose that plant.

Plants vs. Zombies 2 (Chinese version)
In the Chinese version of the sequel, Flower Pots are upgrades or accessories that can be equipped and unequipped to certain plants in the costumes menu. There are four types of these Flower Pots: The sun pot, lightning pot, flotation pot, and the recycling pot. Each comes with a different bonus, and can only be used on specific plant types. When a plant in a pot is eaten by a zombie, sometimes the pot will stick around. However, the effect is purely cosmetic. For example, if a Cactus was planted in the waters of Big Wave Beach and was subsequently killed, the pot stays where it is. However, non-aquatic plants cannot be planted on the pot.

Strategies
Given how the player cannot plant on the Roof otherwise, the player should always take it whenever they play a Roof level. However, there are a few select situations where it can be used elsewhere, despite not being recommended by the game.

If you want to slow down zombies on the roof, a combination would be a Puff-shroom (by itself, asleep) or Wall-nut or Tall-nut on a Flower Pot, possibly coated with a Pumpkin (which gives a three-layer defense). Flower Pot can also be used to slow down Gargantuars and cause Pole Vaulting Zombies to lose their pole.

They are usable off the roof, allowing it to be used defensively similar to a Pumpkin (it will not help the plant in it, but it will buy some time for the plants on the left after the plant in it gets eaten). Note that you must put the pot there before you put the plant if you want extra defense.

It is not recommended for ground levels, even though they can be planted on ground, as planting one will just waste 25 sun in the process.

Zen Garden
Flower Pots contain plants in the main Zen Garden. The Flower Pots in the Zen Garden do not have eyes or a mouth, so they are not actually plants. Aquatic plants in the main garden and the Mushroom Garden are kept inside Flower Pots filled with water instead of dirt, which are larger than normal Zen Garden Flower Pots. Even if there is no eyes or mouth, however, when the Flower Pot is put in the Wheel Barrow, it will appear to have eyes and a mouth.

Trivia

 * On Level 5-1, the player will be provided with five columns of Flower Pots. The player will be provided with four columns of Flower Pots in Level 5-2, and the rest of the Roof levels will have three columns, with the exception of Column Like You See 'Em which has eight columns of Flower Pots.
 * It is one of the six plants that can preexist at the start of a level; the others are Sunflower (Versus Mode), Cob Cannon (Buttered Popcorn), Peashooter (Heat Wave, Wall-nut Bowling for the first time in adventure mode), Lily Pad (Heat Wave), and Wall-nut (in Can You Dig It?, Heat Wave, and Squirrel).
 * It is the only plant in the Suburban Almanac with a Roof background for its entry. This is because Flower Pots are only needed for planting on the roof.
 * A similar situation occurs with Sea-shroom, which is the only plant with a Fog background.
 * It can be planted on the ground, unlike Sea-shroom.
 * They cannot be planted on Lily Pads.
 * It is actually a plant itself, according to its Suburban Almanac entry. If the player looks closely, there is a sprout with leaves on it, further proving the point that it is a plant. However, Flower Pot in the Zen Garden does not have the sprout, showing that it is a regular pot. The developers at PopCap Games most likely decided to make the pot a plant so it would make sense using up sun rather than money for it and so it would make sense when a zombie eats it.
 * It cannot be obtained for the Zen Garden by normal means. This may be due to the fact that it does not make sense to have a Flower Pot inside of itself. It is also the only non-upgrade plant besides Imitater, Explode-o-nut and the giant plants that cannot be obtained in the player's Zen Garden.
 * It and its Imitater version are the only plants that can be planted on the roof tiles because they are pots and therefore have no roots. However, Squashes, Jalapenos, and many other plants without roots cannot be planted on the roof tiles.
 * It and Imitater are the only plants which can be planted on multiple types of tiles without the help of other plants.
 * When the player plants on an imitated Flower Pot, it will turn brown, which is its original color. If he or she removes that plant, it will revert to gray. This only happens when the 3D Acceleration is turned off. when it is turned on Imitater Flower Pots will always have a gray color.
 * It is one of the three plants that are not recommended in Fog levels, the other two being Coffee Bean and Grave Buster.
 * It is also the only one of the three that can actually be planted in Fog.
 * Even though the Roof is made of tiles or bricks, when the player plants a Flower Pot on the roof, soil will appear out of the Flower Pot's bottom like it has been planted on the lawn.
 * It might be the soil falling out from the Flower Pot.
 * It, Pumpkin, and Chomper are the only plants that do not have active eyes.
 * When it is planted, it bounces, but it does not bounce when there is a plant on it or when it is being stolen by a Bungee Zombie.
 * Spikeweed and Spikerock cannot be planted in Flower Pots, as it is pointless to have a plant that hurts zombies stepping on it if the zombies cannot get on top of it. This would mean if the player could plant Spikeweed or Spikerock in a Flower Pot, then zombies would probably eat the Spikeweed or Spikerock.
 * When a plant gets planted in it, the soil turns from a light brown to a dark brown.
 * This may be the plant's shadow.
 * It, Tangle Kelp, Spikeweed, Spikerock, Potato Mine, and Sea-shroom are the only plants that cannot be planted on Lily Pads.
 * It can be hit by Peashooter and Gatling Pea Zombies, despite that it is clear the peas go over the Flower Pot. It is possible that Flower Pots are not programmed to be faced with those zombies.
 * Along with Lily Pad and Pumpkin, it is one of the three plants that can be destroyed by Doom-shroom.
 * In Last Stand: Roof, if the player sells the preexisting Flower Pots and does not plant in that space, when the next flag starts, new Flower Pots will fill that space. This trick can be used to gain a little more than the given sun.
 * It only appears at the Zen Garden in Plants vs. Zombies 2.
 * Although it is considered plants in Plants vs. Zombies, the only part of it that has to do with a plant is the sprout growing on it.