Dan,
 
Handlin addresses the turn-of-century nostalgia for rural values.
Domestic manuals indicate it is likely that women often potted plants in
households. Since we excavate individual's sites, I'm sure there's some
variation, just as Hanson found the diary of a rural man who enjoyed
sewing and housework. It would be best to avoid inferring the meaning of
plant pots from the dominant ideology alone, but you may not have local
documentation of practices in potting plants. I've connected the rural
nostalgia with the higher morality of nature and women by combining
information in Handlin, Beecher, Epstein and the reformer Melusina Fay
Peirce. I'll send some papers soon.
Suzanne