Indoor Plants in Nursery Pots: Your Plant's BFF

If you've ever bought a plant from anywhere, whether it be a big box store, your local nursery or online, they usually arrive potted in a plastic nursery pot. Although it's quite the eyesore & you're probably dying to repot it into a much more aesthetically pleasing pot as soon as you get home, stop right there! That nursery pot is your plant's best friend because of the holes you see on the bottom.


Your indoor plants need proper drainage. The holes on the bottom of your pot allow for extra water to drain out from the bottom to prevent your plant's roots from rotting. Root rot happens when plants are overwatered and they aren't able to use it fast enough and can be pretty hard to reverse once your plant starts to die.

It allows for another method of watering called "bottom watering" AKA "butt chugging" your plants. As the name suggests, you water your plants from the bottom. All you'll need is a saucer that you'll pour water into while your plant is sitting inside. Your plant will soak up all the water that it needs from the holes on the bottom. We recommend taking it off when you're able to feel the moisture about 1 inch from the top of your soil. Keeping the very top soil dry can help to prevent fungus gnats that are attracted to moist soil. For 4 inch plants, it takes about 10-15 minutes. For 6-8 inch plants, it can take anywhere from 20-40 minutes.

So how do you tell if your plant needs to be repotted? If you see your plant's roots sticking out of the bottom of the pot, it's time to upgrade its pot size! Most plants are fine for about a year or so, but that's not always the case so be sure to keep an eye on the roots.

But I really want prettier pots! How do I do that? We recommend placing your plant in its nursery pot into a decorative pot. This way, you can easily water your plant & let the water drain out and plop it back in.

We can't stress how important proper drainage is for your indoor plants. Root rot & overwatering is one of the top reasons why plants don't stay alive. Once we learned this tip, our plant-parenting skills really took off. Hope this helps you as well!