Quick answer: Small pots for indoors, 6 to 12cm wide, suit succulents, cacti, herbs and cuttings on shelves, desks and windowsills. Choose pots with drainage and a matching saucer, or use them as cover pots. Group them in odd numbers, and water sparingly, because small pots dry out and flood easily.

When your whole flat is smaller than most people's living room, you learn to garden upward and inward. Small indoor plant pots are the quiet weapon of anyone renting a shoebox. They turn a spare shelf, a windowsill or the far corner of a desk into a scrap of green without stealing the floor space you never had. I have jungled a one-bed in Walthamstow off barely a square metre of actual surface, and it all started with a handful of little pots put in exactly the right places.

The trick with small pots is to stop thinking of them as shrunken big pots. They play by their own rules entirely. Learn those rules and a shelf of tiny planters can look every bit as lush as a floor crowded with giants.

Why small pots work so hard in a flat

Little pots punch well above their weight for renters and desk-dwellers, for a few reasons.

  • They fit the spaces you already own shelf edges, windowsills, the sliver beside a monitor.
  • They are cheap enough to buy in a group, and a group always beats a single.
  • They are light and movable, so you can chase the light around the flat as the seasons turn.
  • They suit the plants that thrive indoors anyway cuttings, small succulents, herbs and slow growers.

The whole point is coverage without commitment. You are not hauling a giant planter up three flights of stairs. You are dotting green wherever there is a spare few centimetres going spare.

Group them, do not scatter them

The single biggest mistake I see is one lonely pot marooned on a wide shelf, looking a bit sorry for itself. Small pots want company. Cluster three or five, vary the heights, let a trailing plant soften the front edge. Suddenly it reads as a collection instead of an offcut.

For the widest choice, start with the small pots range and layer in a few pieces from the broader indoor plant pots collection for variety. A set like the Terrazzo Two-Tone Pots hands you four matching pots in one go, which is exactly what you want for an instant grouped-shelf look without trawling the shops for singles.

Desks, propagation and a bit of fun

A desk is prime small-pot country. Something living beside your screen genuinely lifts a nine-hour working day, and a clear glass planter earns its keep as a talking point on every video call. The Propagation Station Glass Planter lets you root cuttings in water where you can actually watch the roots inch out, which is oddly gripping and completely free once a mate hands you a snip of theirs.

Prefer a rustic, hardworking look? The Tiny Terracotta Pots fifty-pack is a renter's dream: enough little clay pots to line a whole windowsill with herbs and seedlings for the price of one big planter. Clay breathes too, which suits herbs that hate sitting soggy.

Go up the walls when the surfaces run out

Once the shelves and sills are full, the walls and ceiling are the next frontier. Small hanging pots let you keep gardening in mid-air, which is the whole game when your floor space is precisely zero. Have a look at the hanging pots range for lightweight options a renter can hang off a single hook without a landlord-baiting drilling job.

Keep the plants happy and the whole thing holds together. Small pots dry out faster than big ones, because there is less compost to hold water, so check them more often in a warm room. The Royal Horticultural Society has good, plain guidance on growing houseplants, and Gardeners' World covers watering houseplants if you are still finding your rhythm. For the bigger styling picture, our indoor styling guide has a whole section on small-space setups.

The renter's takeaway

Small indoor plant pots are how you wring a proper jungle out of a flat that barely has room for a sofa. Buy them in sets, group them in odd numbers, park the thirsty ones where you will actually remember to water them, and head up the walls when the surfaces run out. It costs next to nothing, it packs up and moves with you when the tenancy ends, and it turns dead space into the best part of the room.

FAQ

How often should I water small indoor plant pots? More often than big ones. Small pots hold less compost, so they dry out faster, especially on a warm windowsill. Check the top of the compost every few days and water when the top couple of centimetres feel dry.

What plants suit small pots? Cuttings, small succulents, herbs and slow-growing houseplants are ideal. They stay happy in a modest amount of compost, so they thrive in the little pots that fit on shelves, sills and desks.

Can I hang small pots without drilling big holes? Yes. Lightweight small hanging pots can hang from a single hook or a rail bracket, which is ideal for renters. Keep the plant and compost light and one small fixing will hold it easily.

About the author Jordan Clifton — Big plant dreams, tiny London flat Jordan is a graphic designer renting a one-bed flat in Walthamstow with barely a windowsill to spare. Refusing to let square footage stop them, they've turned shelves, walls and ceilings into a jungle. They share small-space setups with a growing community of fellow flat-dwellers online. Writing for Potty for Plant Pots UK.