The bug

When blocks were being converted over to using model files in 1.8, several of these conversions were incomplete and flawed, resulting in a multitude of issues. Many of these were resolved before the release of 1.8, however this specific issue was not.

In 14w25a, models involving flat 2D planes had those planes be rendered darker depending on their directions. This affected blocks such as grass, flowers and mushrooms, and was ultimately fixed (MC-57159). However, the same version also caused plants in flower pots to appear darker for the same reason, and this was not fixed.

As a result, plants which are placed in flower pots appear noticeably darker than those same plants when placed in the world (outside of a flower pot), which has been the case since 14w25a.

A comparison of the appearances of potted objects can be found below:

1.4.2 - 1.7.10 (expected rendering)	1.8 - present (incorrect rendering)

How to fix

This is ultimately incredibly easy to fix - the two texture plane elements in "flower_pot_cross.json" and its tinted version "tinted_flower_pot_cross.json" simply need a

"shade": false

line added to them, which should resolve this unwanted darkening.

A comparison of potted objects with and without the fix can be found below:

22w11a (current rendering)	22w11a (fixed rendering)

Further notes

22w11a implemented potted mangrove propagules, which are completely unaffected by this issue as they have a unique, dedicated model which does actually explicitly disable shading. Despite this, shading was not disabled for existing potted crosses in this version.