By Jim McCausland, Sunset senior garden writer

If I have to be a water carrier—and that’s my main indoor horticultural occupation—I want to do it in style, and the most elegant watering can that comes to mind is made by Haws Watering Cans in England.

I like Haws cans because they’re perfectly balanced and deliver water gently and evenly. You pick just how gently when you select the shiny brass rose that fits on the end of the extended spout.

Some roses, like the oval #2-3 rose (below), direct the water straight up so that it descends as a fine rain that falls gently enough that it won’t wash fine seeds out of place; others, like the #4 rose (below right), let a coarser shower come out about 40 percent faster than the #3 rose (below left) to speed the job along.

And if you’re watering a mulched surface that won’t be disturbed by a stream of water, you needn’t use any rose at all (bottom).

For most indoor use, I use a 1-gallon Slim Can with either a #4 rose or no rose. A gallon of water just soaks all the soil in an 19-inch-wide container—the kind I use for my Ficus benjamina and palm trees.

Ironically, this design is a relatively new one for Haws—and exactly the design that John Haws disliked so much that he invented the classic Haws can (the green one pictured in front of the galvanized one in the top photo) in the 1880’s. I’m not sure what his problem was—maybe it’s harder to fill a can with an over-the-top handle from a hand pump—but I like the Slim Can design just fine.

Haws’ own design has been almost unchanged for more than a century. Its chimney-style top keeps water from splashing out when you’re carrying it around and pouring, and it is easy to fill. I’m taken with the extra-long reach on the two-gallon version. You can easily reach a Christmas tree reservoir with it through the foliage, and it carries enough water to save you trips to the faucet when you’re irrigating potted deck plants in summer.

Haws cans come in galvanized, powder-coated metal, and plastic versions. The plastic ones are definitely cheaper and lighter, and still attractive, but I love the classic, hot-dipped look of the premium cans. They make me feel like a real gardener, even after I’ve just killed another orchid.

You can buy Haws cans from a number of sources, but the most complete selection of cans and roses I’ve found is from The Peas and Corn Company, an eccentric family business in Georgia that offers an odd array of products that runs from nutcrackers to thousand-dollar belt buckles (I will be forgiven for overspending on watering cans).