A closer view from a lower viewpoint reveals the sand filling the pot. The realism of the model holds up quite well as we move closer. There are some fringe artifacts on the leaves, which can be minimzed by careful preparation of the textures; also the connection between the leaves and the stem need a little tweaking.

A hint of the possibilites for subtle shadowing is exhibited in this image. The problem, as mentioned in the description for the previous image, is that mapped shadows don't respect opacity maps. Raytraced shadow would do so, but as MAX only supplies point lights, the shadows would be sharp.