A watering can (or watering pot) is a portable container, usually with a handle and a funnel, used to water plants by hand. It has been in use since at least A.D. 79 and has since seen many improvements in design. Apart from watering plants, it has varied uses, as it is a fairly versatile tool. The capacity of the container can be anywhere from 0.5 litres (for indoor household plants) to 10 litres (for general garden use). It is usually made of

metal A metal (from ancient Greek, Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, e ...

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain, ...

plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be moulded, extruded or pressed into solid objects of various shapes. This adapta ...

. At the end of the spout, a "rose" (a device, like a cap, with small holes) can be placed to break up the stream of water into droplets, to avoid excessive water pressure on the soil or on delicate plants. Water-pot-Herculaneum-Villa-of-the-Papyri-Barker-1908

Water-pot-Herculaneum-Villa-of-the-Papyri-Barker-1908

History

The term "watering can" first appeared in 1692, in the diary of keen cottage gardener Lord Timothy George of Cornwall. Before then, it was known as a "watering pot". In 1886 the "Haws" watering can was patented by John Haws. The

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

read "This new invention forms a watering pot that is much easier to carry and tip, and at the same time being much cleaner, and more adapted for use than any other put before the public." The shower head end is called a ''rose'', ''rose head'', ''rosette'', or ''sprinkler head''.

Modern uses

Watering cans are used by gardeners for watering plants, by road workers to apply bitumen to asphalt, as ornaments, and regularly in symbolic art pieces.

In popular culture

*Impressionist artist

Pierre-Auguste Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionism, Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially femininity, feminine sensuality ...

painted a work entitled ''

A Girl with a Watering Can ''A Girl with a Watering Can'' is an 1876 Impressionist painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The work was apparently painted in Claude Monet's famous garden at Argenteuil, and may portray one of the girls in Renoir's neighborhood in a blue dress hol ...

''.A Girl with a Watering Can
/ref> *

John Cleese John Marwood Cleese ( ; born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. Emerging from the Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and ...

, in a 1963

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

Footlights Revue ("Cambridge Circus") sketch, "Judge Not", described a watering can as: "a large, cylindrical, tin-plated vessel with a perforated pouring piece, much used by the lower classes for the purpose of artificially moistening the surface soil".

Gallery

File:Schooltuin Plutodreef Utrecht - School garden, 2019 - 3.jpg, Watering cans on a stake in a school garden, Schooltuin Plutodreef Utrecht, the Netherlands File:Watercan.png, A watering can made of plastic File:Watering-can-green.jpg, A

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combin ...

, 2 litre watering can made of

galvanised iron Galvanization or galvanizing (American and British English spelling differences, also spelled galvanisation or galvanising) is the process of applying a protective zinc coating to steel or iron, to prevent rusting. The most common method is hot ...

pouring water File:Watering can for bonsai.jpg, Watering can for bonsai File:Watering jug make from empty container.jpg, Watering can made from discarded container

References

{{Garden tools Liquid containers Gardening tools Irrigation Plant nutrition Articles to be expanded from February 2013