Pots and Planters

Which pot material suits your plant?

Material changes how fast the compost dries, and that is the single biggest factor in whether a houseplant thrives or rots. Match the material to how the plant likes to be watered, then choose on looks.

• Glazed ceramic: holds moisture well and is heavy enough to steady a tall, top-weighted plant. Our ceramic and glazed pots suit most tropical foliage.
• Unglazed terracotta: porous, so it wicks moisture out of the compost and dries faster. Good for succulents, snake plants and ZZ plants. We go into the trade-offs in are terracotta pots good for houseplants.
• Recycled plastic: light, cheap and holds water longer, which suits ferns and Calathea. Ivyline's Mondo range starts at £1.99 in our plastic plant pots.
• Clear plastic: lets you see root health and moisture without digging. Standard for orchids and useful for aroids you are rooting on. See clear pots.
• Self-watering: a reservoir and wick feed the compost from below, which evens out erratic watering. Whether they actually work is covered in do self-watering pots work for houseplants.
• Metal and decorative: most have no drainage hole, so treat them as cover pots rather than growing pots. Browse metal pots and decorative pots.

Getting the size right

Match the pot to the root ball, not the foliage. When repotting, go up 2 to 3cm in internal diameter: a 12cm pot becomes a 14 or 15cm one. Fast growers like Epipremnum and Monstera can take 4 to 5cm more; slow growers like Sansevieria and Zamioculcas are better at 2cm. Some plants flower or pup more freely when slightly snug, so a healthy plant does not need repotting just because a year has passed. Full method in how to choose the right pot size.

Nursery pot or decorative pot?

The simplest setup is to leave the plant in its nursery pot, then drop that inside a decorative cover pot. You lift the whole thing out to water, let it drain, and put it back, so the roots never sit in standing water. If you would rather pot directly into a decorative pot, it needs a drainage hole. Both points are covered in nursery pot versus decorative pot and do houseplant pots really need drainage holes.

Where to start

For a new plant that has just arrived, a clear or plastic nursery pot plus a cover pot is the safest combination: our 9cm clear nursery pots start at £1.00. For a mature floor plant, the Elho Greenville Round runs up to 30cm and has a built-in water reservoir. For a plant you are settling in for good, pick a glazed ceramic pot 2 to 3cm wider than the current one and pair it with the right potting mix. Brand ranges worth a look: Elho, Ivyline, Bergs Potter and POTR.