All Plant Pots — Ceramic Indoor Pots by Chive Studio

Chive Studio makes plant containers for every indoor job: small, medium, and large pots, hanging planters, animal-shaped pots, cachepots, and a self-watering design. Most have drainage holes, and every drainage design ships with a matching saucer. All of it is designed in Toronto and made by hand, from a studio that has been at this since 2004.

Yes — any pot holding a regularly watered living plant needs a drainage hole, or water pools at the roots and rot follows. The two honest exceptions are the cachepot, which holds a draining grower pot inside it, and self-watering designs, which manage water through a reservoir. Everything else in this range drains, on purpose.

The best pots for indoor plants have a drainage hole and a saucer, are sized one to two inches wider than the root ball, and are glazed ceramic — heavy enough not to tip, sealed enough not to sweat onto the shelf. Chive plant pots with drainage ship with a matching saucer in small, medium and large; the without-drainage range suits cachepot use over a nursery pot. Match the pot to the plant's water habit first and the room second.

The right pot size is about two inches wider in diameter than the plant’s current root ball. From a 3-inch nursery pot, move to a 5-inch; from a 4-inch, move to a 6-inch. Going bigger too fast leaves excess soil holding water the roots can’t use, which invites rot; going smaller stalls growth within months. Size up when roots show at the drainage hole.

The best indoor planters are ceramic, drain properly, and are heavy enough to keep a growing plant upright. Ceramic holds temperature steadier than plastic, doesn’t leach, and doesn’t fade in a sunny window. Chive’s indoor planters add the part the industry keeps forgetting: the saucer ships with the pot, every time, on every drainage design.

Self watering pots work for plants that like evenly moist soil and owners who travel, forget, or both. The Ryan is the only self-watering pot in the Chive range: a wick runs through the drainage hole, so you can water from the top like a normal pot or set it in a saucer of water and let the plant take what it needs. Succulents and cacti prefer to dry out between waterings, and are better off in a standard drainage pot.

The best indoor plants for beginners are pothos, snake plants, ZZ plants, and peace lilies — all four forgive inconsistent watering and grow in the indirect light most rooms actually have. Pair them with a drainage pot in the right size and the learning curve flattens further: pothos in a medium pot or hanging planter, snake plants in medium to large, ZZ plants in a 6-inch to start.

A planter is the broad term — any container for a plant, in any material, hanging or standing, indoors or out. A pot is the narrower one: typically a ceramic container for a single plant, usually indoors, ideally with a drainage hole. In practice people use the words interchangeably, and the only distinction that changes a plant’s life is drainage hole versus no drainage hole.