Alright so. . . there’s good news and bad news. The bad news is that gorgeous ceramic pot you just bought is probably not the perfect plant home it’s feigning to be. Most of the pots you see in nurseries, while aesthetically pleasing, unfortunately come without one of the most important features a plant home should have: a drainage hole. So put away that trowel and soil, because planting your pal in there will almost always spell certain death.
The good news is that there are ways around this dilemma. That’s right, you CAN have it all, as long as you make sure your plant has drainage in the process.
The most common response I hear when I break it to someone that I don’t recommend they pot their plant directly in the decorative ceramic one is, “well can’t you just put some rocks on the bottom?” The answer is you can, and it will help increase the drainage of the soil but only for a little while.
Unfortunately, as time passes, two things tend to happen. The most common reason this method stops working is that people use pebbles that are much larger in size than the particles in the soil and therefore leave spaces between them large enough for the soil particles to compact. Because of this, the rocks end up mixed in with the soil and water still manages to soak the bottom of the plant.
This problem may be avoided by cutting a piece of window screen in the shape of your pot and putting it between the layer of pebbles and the soil your plant sits in. However, this is where we run into our second obstacle: unless you are an absolute professional at guessing how much water your plant will absorb, the excess will then collect in the rock layer and build up over time and escape the pebbles until you again, end up with wet roots.
In order to avoid these complications, I recommend the use of a cache pot. This is simply when you place a plant and its nursery pot inside of the beautiful decorative one you like. When you water, remove the plant from the decorative pot and water it thoroughly in the sink or the shower until it stops dripping from the bottom. Unfortunately this is the only surefire way to guarantee that no root rot can ensue. If your pot DOES have a drainage hole, ignore everything I just said and go ahead and plant that baby up! Just make sure you put a tray under the pot to save your surfaces from water damage.

The second and equally as important tenet of drainage is soil composition. For the purposes of this post, we will not get into the ins and outs of mixing one’s own potting mix and what those ratios will look like, but I will explain the different ingredients in the kinds of soils you will encounter and what purposes those ingredients serve in terms of drainage so that you may use your best judgement on what your plant needs.
There are two types of potting mixes typically available to us in gardening stores: regular potting soil and cactus soil. Within these two types there are typically four ingredients. The major three are peat moss (or more sustainably, coco coir), compost, and perlite. Peat moss or coco coir are both ingredients that hold on to moisture and allow a plant’s roots to absorb water from the soil. Compost can come in many forms, most often in a bag of potting soil it will be worm castings or bark, one of which is already decomposed. Perlite (or vermiculite or pumice) is the ingredient that affects the drainage of the soil. If a soil is perlite heavy, it will drain faster because perlite does not retain moisture. The fourth ingredient is typically only found in cactus mix and it’s sand. Sand just helps with increasing drainage and making the potting mix less nutrient dense, as succulents and cacti are native to arid and nutrient poor environments. My best advice when deciding what potting mix to use for your plant would be to look up your plant’s native environment and think about what the soil composition would be like there. Is it a jungle environment with heavy rains and moist soil? Then go with a mix that is a little bit more coco coir and compost heavy. Is it a desert environment with a dry climate and rocky soil? Go with something more perlite and sand heavy. When bringing nature in, it is important to try and mimic the natural environment as closely as possible.
Soapbox moment: Peat moss is an ingredient commonly used in potting mixes, but it is a non-renewable resource. Peat has to be mined from wetlands in the northern hemisphere and this process can be incredibly destructive to delicate bog ecosystems. Please if you have the option, always opt for a coco coir-based potting mix, as this is made from the husks of coconuts and has a much smaller environmental impact.

Drainage, Please