HELP - Suggestions PLEASE - Indoor in pot without drainage?

Could someone please recommend a low maintenance houseplant, for placement in an approximate 5 gallon white pot, which does not have drain holes?

Thanks -

Donald

I wouldn't recommend planting anything directly in a pot with no drainage hole--maybe there are some water garden plants that would survive this but anything else it's just too hard to keep the roots from rotting. What I've done when I have pretty pots that I want to use but they have no drainage is either drill a drainage hole, or I leave the plant in its original nursery pot and stick it inside the other container. Then when I water the plant, I take the nursery pot out, water it thoroughly and let the excess water drain, then put it back in the pretty pot. Of course with a 5 gal pot it might be kind of a pain to have to take the plant out to water it, so if possible I'd recommend the approach of drilling some drainage holes in the bottom of the pot.

I have to agree with ecrane3. You're just asking for trouble to plant directly into a pot with no drainage. If you don't want to drill holes in your pot (that would make me very nervous), you could find a nursery pot that is shallower than your decorator pot and use an upside down pot or rocks in the bottom to hold it up so that that the roots won't sit in water. Add some charcoal to the bottom of the decorator pot as well to keep the drainage water from getting gross. Most of my indoor plants are planted this way. I also use a moisture meter to make sure that I'm not overwatering. I have been known to water so well that my elevated nursery pot was sitting in water. (Now that's a lot of extra water.)

I hope that this helps.

Oooops, we didn't exactly give you any ideas on an appropriate plant. Will this plant be living in a sunny area or in the shade?

Thanks ecrane3 and marie_

I am going to give the elevated pot-within-a-pot method a try, as the drilling makes me far too nervous!

The plant will be internal to the house, so no direct window light, but large bright room... Indirect sunlight though...

Thanks again for the help!

Donald

http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/125948/index.html
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/606/index.html

Check out these plant files, either one would be nice.

Larry

Hi

The cast iron plant is great, but another great one is the pothos (Marble Queen, Jade, Golden, Neon, etc.). They're hard to kill, and they grow quickly.

http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/51451/


Kelly

Great suggestions for the plant. A fern might also be nice. Boston Fern, etc.

http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/55269/index.html

Apparently the corkscrew plant would love to live in your pot!

Kelly

Thanks ceallachg -

That looks ideal... I am going to give it a try... I will post back on how it does (with photos)....


Donald

Spicerd, the best indoor plant that requires very little maintaince, little water and little light is the ZZ Plant(Zamioculcas zamiifolia)
A huge pot of it looks wonderful inside, just water it about once a month. The plant grows in the dark, I just love it.

I have some plants at work that does not have a drainage hole. I put gravel or rocks in the bottom before planting.

I've had a nice Begonia growing with no drain hole for years. It started small and just grew and grew. After three or so years I have taken many cuttings to start new plants, Have a good size one outside in garden bed. Also have just trans-planted it to a new 12 inch pot. Still doing great !

I'm with city_sylvia....the ZZ plant would be perfect (using your white pot w/o drainage as a 'cache-pot').

The Juncus is a really cool plant, but I've tried it indoors and it did not like it there!

I think it needs a lot of light.....and I believe (not sure about this, though) it has a dormant period during which all growth will die back.

Maybe you'll have more success than I did, though....and it's surely worth a try.