The real aging process of the cast iron Versailles planter boxes from the Orangerie of the Palace of versailles

All the pictures in this blog were taken by us and belongs to the original planters that you can find at the Orangerie of the Palace of Versailles.

Buying Versailles planter boxes is an investment and sometimes before buying many of the customers are worried about the investment and about the natural aging of the versailles planters for outdoor use.

So they want to know if the outdoor weather will damage the planters in anyway, and they also want to know what should they expect about rusted metal parts, or about the life of a wood panel.

Sometimes the customers expect things that are not real and that does not represent the spirit of the original versailles planter, so we usually explained them how the parts of the planters we manufacture are treated and painted trying to follow the original concept but using the best materials from this century.

So the frame of the planter box now is treated with a coat of zinc for all the metal parts, and then it is painted with powder coating, and the side panels made of wood are hand painted as the originals, so sometimes we have to explain that the wooden side panels are not lacquered kitchen cabinets.

So we decided to write a few lines to show to any potential customers a few pictures of the original planters from the Orangerie of the Palace of Versailles to show them that these planters are strong, beautiful and amazing but they are not perfectly painted and polished as a new luxury car that comes out of a factory.

The Château de Versailles tree-box owes its reputation to its superior quality materials and unique technical specifications, resulting in an entirely French-made art-craftsmanship piece that even with the harsh climate from France in outdoors exposure and may lasts up to 150 years, and this does not mean that the outdoor weather won't start immediately a slow or fast process of aging all parts.

These days many people is mainly affected by fake instagram photos showing an inexistent perfections, and if you have the chance to see the hole picture of an instagram post you will find out that a real photo many times also includes a real, messy, unglamorous details that nobody wants to show on their feeds.

When we started building this planters we noticed that the ones at the Orangerie of Versailles were originally made from cast iron, which suffers a lot in outdoor situation, so we replaced 90% of the metal parts by cast aluminum alloy and we finally developed a high end Versailles Planter box using the best possible materials and processes while respecting the orginal design and proportions of the original planters built 400 years ago by Andre Le Notre the gardener of the king Louis XIV for the Orangerie and gardens of the Palace of Versailles.

Instagram rarely shows the hole frame of a real photo and not always represents real life situations. Most of all Instagram users spend a long time carefully curating their feeds, adding the right filter, or photoshopped out a not so beautiful imperfection.

So many times the hole picture shows that there's quite a lot of unwated things in the background.

Here are a few pictures of the real Versailles Planters from the Orangerie of The Palace of Versailles with nice detailed close up to see everything that goes on behind the scenes too.

The natural aging process ads a beautiful touch to this planters and we love it, because this is the way it has to be.

In the picture above you can see versailles planters form the orangerie of versailles with less than 3 years old and you start seeing a few rusted pieces caused by the natural aging process.

The original planters have the bottom floor made from pieces of wood that sooner or later will end up rotten like its clearly shown here.

In our version of the planters we have the metal crossbar but we made a second layer of a floor instead of using wood we made it of aluminum with many holes for good draining to avoid this issue.

JARDINIER DU ROI VERSAILLES PLANTERS AGING PROCESS

What to expect about the natural weather caused aging process of our versailles planters?

Depending on the climate in your area, whether it is very humid and cold or if it is very dry and hot, different signs of the normal aging process of Versailles pots can be expected.

In the case of very dry or hot places with a lot of sun, the appearance of black fungus stains on the wooden side panels will be slower and not very visible, on the contrary, in shady places or places with a lot of cold or snow where If there is little sun, it is more likely that if the wood is not cleaned regularly every three or six months, especially in autumn and winter, black spots of moisture fungus will form in less than a year.

In the last years we changed the paint we use for the wooden panels and right now this stains are very rare to see it.

To try to avoid or delay this, we recommend doing what they do in Versailles, which is to store them in a covered place where the weather is less hostile during the fall and winter season.

Photo from Le Parisien, Orangerie chateau de Versailles

Photo from Chateau de versailles.

If you do not have a place for this or do not have machinery to move them, we generally recommend as preventive maintenance cleaning these stains with anti fungal and then painting the wooden panels of the pots every 2 years, in dry and sunny places, and in places with little sun or high humidity, repaint the side panels once a year or once every two years if they were cleaned each 3 to 6 months specially during autumn and winter season.

In the past we used to paint the side wooden panels of our planters with Rust Oleum North American water-based paint with fungus retardant, with this water based paint it is inevitable that these stains will appear sooner or later at some point. So a few years ago we changed the kind of paint for the wooden panels and now we use synthetic enamel thinner based paint for the wooden panels that avoid this stains, and right now is very rare to see this stains.

In all types of climates, and mainly with the pots of the original version, that is, the one that comes with real iron hinges, it is normal to see rust lines to form that drip behind the hinges because the paint does not reach to penetrate behind the hinges.

Although the iron column undergoes a zinc plating process prior to being oven painted, at some point you will begin to see some lines of liquid rust dripping down the legs of the pots, as well as on the bottom of the pots where the base of columns meets the iron column. This can be cleaned simply with a dry cloth and if necessary, a polishing paste can be added to the cloth to remove scratches such as those used for cars to remove these rust stains.

As these rust stains appear, if it is something that bothers you too much and you want to avoid it as much as possible, the best thing you can do to slow it down is to do what they do in versailles that in mid-autumn, the pots are kept indoors in the Orangerie that is roofed and then they take them out in the sun in spring, for normal people who cannot do this, the best thing is once you clean the rust stains, place some transparent silicone sealant in the joint of the hinge with the column Like the ones used to seal any water ingress, and as these lines of rust appear, clean them with a cloth and/or a product used to polish stains on the paint.

In the case of the frame of the pot, that is, the metal structure that is part aluminum and part iron, in case you want to repaint it, it has to be with some solvent-based paint because the water-based paint does not adhere well on the baked powder paint that has the frame of the pot.

For this, you should consult a professional in your area for advice on what paint to try, do a test, for example, on the inside of one of the side locks and then when it is dry, see if the paint comes off when you scrape it off or not , and if it goes well repaint it all.

It is also likely that over time you will see some sign of peeling of the paint from the metal frame of the pots, due to the excessive expansion of the metals exposed to different types of weather.

This signs may appear mainly due to the dogs that urinates on the legs of the pots, the acid in the urine causes the paint to come off where the dog has urinated.

The urine of the dogs on the legs of the flower pots may cause over time to peel off and crack the paint, and once that small crack appears in the paint, it will peel off over time.

This could also happen by cleaning the planter with some acid or alkaline cleaning product that was used to clean the flower pot and that over time some chemical made a small crack in the paint and over time it peeled off.

It could also be caused by some fertilizer that the soil of the pot contains, and with daily watering this acidic or alkaline chemical comes out through the legs of the pot and affects the paint on the legs and ends up causing this problem over time.

The best way to solve this issue is to remove only one of the crossbars, it could be one of the crossbars that is on the back of the planter, that no one will notice that is not there, and go to a paint shop to have them prepare a similar color for your flower pot.

I recommend for paint retouch to use synthetic enamel paint that is diluted with solvent or thinner, do not use water-based paint.

To retouch the paint you DO NOT need to disassemble the planter. You just need to prepare the damaged piece first by sanding it by hand with an emery cloth, removing any peeling paint, then cleaning it with thinner, and then painting over this with a brush or spray gun. 

If you want, you can first test if the paint you bought adheres well to the piece by painting the inside of the crossbar that you removed from the pot, let it dry for 24 or 48 hours and see if it is well adhered when it is dry, if the paint works well then it will be fine. 

We recommend retouching up the planter once after the first two years, but this depends on where the pot is located, whether it is outside or inside and depending on the type of climate, but generally every two years someone has to make touch-ups to keep the pot as good as possible.

Our warranty clearly explains that we do not cover the natural aged look cause by the weather in outdoor or indoor, as well as if appears rust or discoloration of the painted surfaces.

Final Conclusion, this lovely planters are pieces of art that we love with all our heart, we published this pictures with the only purpose to instruct all the new buyers, to let them know what is a real versailles planter because we realized that they were asking for details that does not represent at all a real versailles planter or the spirit of this master pieces.

Symbol of beauty, perfection, strength and luxury, since ancient times, the Versailles tree boxes are usually seen on many palaces, chateaux, hotels, or public places in France.

If you ever got the chance to walk thru the Orangerie gardens of the Palace of Versailles or the Tuileries gardens in Paris France, you may have seen that the trees aren’t rooted in the soil, instead they are planted inside this lovely orange tree planter boxes, the shape and the design of the Versailles planter boxes really steal the show.

For more information contact us direct to our:

JARDINIER DU ROI Versailles planter

Miami, FL 33122 - USA

Miami: +1 (305) 83-44752

Tel/whatsapp: +5491144726757

email: pplaul@hotmail.com

Website: https://www.jardinierduroi.com

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