Indoors, they can either go between the flower pots, or they can hold smaller pots, giving them extra height and importance. It goes without saying that you will put any pot headed for a shoe opening into a plastic cup that will contain any water overflow.

For outdoors, you can protect wooden shoes with a good waterproofing treatment. Again, it shouldn’t need to be said, but might not be obvious to some, that one should not use waterproofing or in any other way alter the finish of a genuine antique. One could then display the wooden shoes as stand-alone decor amid the plantings, on places like porch rails, along the edges of stairs or a simulated path (perhaps humorously set out like footprints), beside a water feature, and other places. Small pots can be set into the shoes. Or, one might build a wooden shelf that sits into a pair or two pair of shoes. Even a small low shelf done this way would lend height and importance to the modest-sized pots displayed there. I would not suggest nailing the shelf to the shoes. For even more humor, use the shelf-on-shoes to hold another pair of shoes!