Risqué Clown Planter

Claim:   Innocent schoolkids accidentally produce risqué results by
growing cactus in clown planters.

Status:   Real photo; inaccurate description.

Example:   [Collected via e-mail, 2001]

A class of elementary students wanted to make a planter to take home and wanted to have a plant that was easy to take care of in it so it was decided to use cactus plants. The students planted the cactus seeds in the planters and they grew nicely but unfortunately were not allowed to take them home. See attachment to see why. The cactus plants were removed and a small ivy replaced them and the children were then allowed to take them home.

Origins:   This amusing photo had been circulated on the Internet for years prior to someone's May 2001 invention of the backstory quoted above. No, there wasn't any such class of cherubic, apple-cheeked youngsters headed up by a naive teacher; that part was all some jokester's flight of fancy. A closer examination of the photo shows these botanical offerings aren't in a classroom but what looks like a warehouse. It's a stock photo, in other words: the planters are shipped with cactus as shown, and the effect is deliberate.

Moreover, cactus planters of similar design have been vended for many a moon. You're likely to encounter them at swap meets and flea markets where the humor of some offerings is a bit coarse.

Barbara "sometimes Nature just has to take its coarse" Mikkelson

Last updated:   20 September 2006