Best Ceramic Planters

Check for a drainage hole before anything else, because glazed ceramic is the category where decorative pots are most often sold sealed, and a plant in a hole-less pot is being watered into a bathtub. Listings that state drainage and include a matching saucer are telling you the pot is meant to be planted into rather than used as a cover; if all you want is a cover pot, that is fine, but keep the nursery pot inside it and lift it out to water. The glaze itself is worth understanding since it seals the clay, so unlike bare terracotta a glazed pot does not lose moisture through its walls. Compost stays wetter for longer, which reduces watering in summer and makes overwatering easier in winter, and it also means the pot suits foliage plants better than succulents. Size in this range runs from around 6 inches for a single succulent to 10 inches for a small shrub, and sets of two or three are useful mainly if you want a graduated group on one shelf. Weight is the practical constraint: ceramic is heavy for its volume, which is stabilising outdoors and awkward on a high shelf. Frost is the other one, since a saturated glazed pot left out in a hard winter can crack straight through despite the glaze. Pattern and shape are pure preference.