Bloem Ariana Self Watering Planter: 12" - Chocolate - Durable Resin Pot, for Indoor and Outdoor Use, Self Watering Disk Included, Gardening, 3 Gallon Capacity

Found this brand years ago, and use them exclusively now, in all sizes. They have a version, "Lucca", with a water catch tray for the pots to sit in vs drilling custom holes, and the soil/root holder is molded into the pot bottom. More expensive, and not available in 20". Think the largest is 16". These end up being more moist than the Ariana's comparatively, not sure exactly why, and can work better for high water consumption plants. Or heavily planted mixed setups. The 20" obviously being the most overall successful, because there is more soil. So plants have a better chance of not getting crispy fried in summer, and can find moisture somewhere in the pot.After glancing through some reviews I felt the Ariana pots should be explained. These pots are SIPs at best, not self watering, unless you build on from the basic pot and tray. The bottom helps grab back up a little bit of water, over a few hours, that ran right through overly dried out soils. The tray inside the pot (If that's missing the deal is off) supports the soil/roots up, out of any water. When the water finally comes. Drill holes that best suit your water environment in the SIDE of the pots, just below the inner support tray. We don't always do that neatly, erring on too high for some holes, but still works fine.We have drought then gully washers, then drought, and so on, from mid-'spring' to early 'winter'. When I first got these, I drilled many small holes around the side bottom, because I worried about mosquitos in stagnate water and fire ants getting up through the pot, like they used to always do before I found this pot brand. I lost about two plants a year to fire ant take over, where they basically drowned the plant in red clay from below the drainage holes. Watering the pot to overfill often, didn't even make them attempt to move. Plus could kill the plant a different way. haHere, there is not enough water remaining in bottom of these pots, long enough, for the mosquitoes to do anything with it. In the seven years I've been using these, not ONE fire ant pot take over has occurred. So now we just drill about four 3/4 inch holes and it stays clean, no ants. (See setup though, for how to keep initial soil fill from contaminating the bottom.)If we lived some place with consistent rain or cooler temperatures, those holes would be about the biggest drill bit I had, and very low. Still on the sides though, because I can't imagine a place without ant takeovers. (Maybe that doesn't happen, somewhere.)Downsides to these pots revolve around the simple fact that they are thin. So they don't hold as cool a soil temperature inside, vs expensive thick pots. Also they can break if someone leans hard on them. Otherwise, they do last for many years, and grow an unending easy supply of drought and heat tolerate plants. Like trellised cowpeas, but I've even managed trellised watermelon in these 20" pots during a year when I was dragging out a hose to water, at least once a week. Just as an aside, watermelon laying across the pot surface, can also bust the pot apart. Which then leads to a funny tied together pot situation for the rest of the growing period. Ask me how I know...Have also grown tomatoes, many cucurbits, all kinds of onions, shallots, garlic, and other high water maintenance things in these. With varying degrees of success, depending on how often the watering hose made it to the pots. Winter crops are actually always fine (lettuce, chard, choy, kale, celery, etc.). Even a touch over watered, usually, by the winter rainfall, because the soil mix is geared towards the weather during most of the year. Winter crops just have to grow fast to beat the incoming heat.Some varieties of peppers don't really perform best in the 20", and do better in the 16". Probably because of the high moisture retention soil mix we use that is down in the middle of the pot as the years pass, and how shallow some of their roots are, so they don't get good use out of the height. Just depends on the pepper variety though.We also have perennial herbs/shrubs, and berry bushes in various sizes of these pots, year round. Winter isn't great for some of the full time herbs, unless I can get the pots under an overhang, where they get half the rain.When these pots are first setup, we line the inner tray with layers of packing paper. The paper holds loose soil particles out of the bottom until the soil forms up, with roots all down there. After that, we just refresh the top dropped level each year, or lightly scratch in amendments. Often, stored shredded fall leaves are used as mulch, so those become part of the spring/fall topper amendment mix.Base soil mix we use is pretty close to a more compost heavy version of the SQ FT garden mix, for moisture retention, so even years later it still pours out easily, to transfer to a new pot. If say a tall guy leaned on the thing and snapped the rim and side! We use mostly coconut coir fiber instead of peat, because once peat dries out here it's just a nightmare.Sorry about the novel, whoops, very passionate about these pots. May they always be sold.

Lightweight, good quality, makes lifting a cinch, and looks great outside by the front door filled with long stem live Shasta daisies. They are growing like crazy!

Great inexpensive planter. Ended up buying a few of these. Thick plastic, holds up to the weather. Removable drain plug in the bottom. Easy to carry and relocate due to the sturdiness of the planter. Color is true to shade.

This is definitely NOT resin! I could tell it was plastic from the image so I wasn't disappointed but they should change their description. I love the shape, great size and sturdy plastic pot for a great price. I will likely order again.

I needed a large resin planter that wasn’t heavy like my pottery and ceramic outdoor pots, so I could move it indoors during the winter months. This Bloem Ariana 20” pot is perfect for my succulents. We get lots of rain and some snow in the winter, which my succulents don’t like, and this pot will be allow me to move them in to my garage.The black color is awesome. Truly black, not gray or faded. And the pot itself is super strong and well made. Very impressed. It looks really durable.Highly recommend.

These pots were inexpensive, but look great and hold up great.. Can't be beat for a nice outdoor garden pot.

This has been great as an upgrade pot to a Meyer’s lemon tree we had delivered. It needs to live in a pot in case of frost and this is the perfect size for its next couple years of growth.Drilling extra holes was important but easy.

This 20 inch pot is perfect for my patio garden. It's deep enough to plant a tree or rose. The plastic seems fairly sturdy. I got the black one on sale. It looks very nice with flowers planted in it.

A nice, sturdy planter, but the inside self-watering disk/grid was missing from the package. Also please note that the planter has a wide lip on the top, so the measurement of the outside top at 13 inches is correct, but the actual size of the top diameter is only 11 1/4", so it is just slightly larger than a 10" planter pot.

Très belle qualité pour un produit de plastique, belle couleur vive et durable, bonne irrigation.Mon frangipanier y est très heureux!

Solid too, the edges were very sharp! watch out for that!

Très bon achat, bonne qualité, grandeur parfaite pour ma plante. Intéressant d'avoir la plateforme intégrée au fond du pot pour récupérer l'eau. Je recommande!

Pour le prix ce pot fait le travail sans contre ditSemble durable