These Plants Always Flourish in Terracotta Pots – 5 That Love Life in Clay While Others Wilt

Terracotta pots bring a warm beauty and character to any deck or patio. They evoke a Mediterranean allure, but also create specific growing conditions that don’t suit all plants. Knowing what grows well in terracotta pots and what doesn’t guarantees happy plants and prevents fatalities.

Terracotta planters and pots are porous and allow air and moisture to pass through their walls, which means the soil dries out faster. This is perfect for any plants that don’t like sitting wet for long periods, but not for moisture-loving ones. Plants that thrive in terracotta pots like warmer soil and fast-draining conditions that dry out between waterings.

If you want a thriving container garden, this guide to the best plants for terracotta pots helps you understand which plants prefer clay and which do better in plastic or ceramic. Terracotta pots do come in many different shapes and sizes, from classic straight-sided pots and urns (like this terracotta urn jar at Target) to more modern designs. If you invest in an eye-catching pot, you always want your plants to impress too.

Rosemary

Rosemary is native to the Mediterranean, a locale of hot, dry summers and rocky, well-draining soils. This natural habitat mirrors the conditions plants experience in a terracotta pot, making rosemary one of the best plants to grow in terracotta pots.

Lindsey Chastain, homesteader and founder of The Waddle and Cluck, says that rosemary’s preference for warm soil, along with its trait of being a drought-tolerant herb, makes it a ‘good option’ for the growing conditions created by terracotta.

‘Terracotta works best for plants that like to dry out a little between waterings,’ says Lindsey. ‘Because it's clay, it also loses moisture faster.’

When you grow rosemary in pots, it is important to avoid ‘wet feet’, as the plant is prone to root rot if it sits in soggy soil for long periods. Any container for rosemary needs drainage holes, and an amendment such as grit or perlite added to the potting mix.

If you want to harvest rosemary for cooking or cocktails, this live ‘Chef's Choice’ rosemary plant at Trees.com, formerly known as Fast Growing Trees, is perfect. With a higher oil content than other varieties, it offers an astounding flavor profile.

Lavender

Lavender is another hugely popular herb, and its native heritage suits it perfectly to terracotta pots. It hails from mountainous areas of the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and Asia (yes, English lavender is not native to England) and thrives in drier, fast-draining soil.

It ticks all the right boxes for growing in terracotta pots or planters, plus growing lavender in clay just looks right. It might just be me, but I think lavender in containers stands out far more as a statement maker in terracotta than plastic pots.

This ‘Phenomenal’ lavender plant from Trees.com is compact and perfect for pots. The purple blooms will look stunning against the earthy orange tones of terracotta and attract lots of pollinators.

When lavender sits in soggy, poorly draining soil, it succumbs to root rot, which often means the end for your plants. If you grow lavender in pots and it looks sad with grey leaves or wilted stems, it may be in the wrong pot or need more gravel added to the soil for drainage. The best soil for lavender is always free-draining.

Also, check that the container has a hole; if not, it is easy to add drainage holes to planters.

Pelargoniums

Pelargoniums, also known as tender geraniums, make a stunning show in pots. I used to work at one garden that displayed its pelargoniums every summer on tables adorned with groups of plants in terracotta pots. It was a great mixed display of colorful, fragrant blooms and foliage, and the plants loved their lives in terracotta.

The tender plants hail predominantly from southern Africa (though some are from Asia or Australasia) and have been popular in gardens for centuries. Pelargoniums come in a range of bright colors, and there are varieties with textured or scented foliage.

This collection of two live pelargonium plants at Amazon combines a Pelargonium ‘Citrosum’ and a Pelargonium crispum ‘Mosquito Shocker’, and both put out a delicious lemon aroma to enjoy.

Overall, there is a real diversity of pelargoniums available for gardeners to grow, but all types need specific growing conditions found in terracotta pots.

Pelargoniums love free-draining soil and are happy for the compost to dry out between waterings. They also thrive when they get good airflow around the roots. This combination makes them one of the best plants to grow in terracotta pots.

Having them in a pot also makes it easy to overwinter geraniums, as you can bring them indoors for the colder months.

Agastache

‘For terracotta pots, I'd recommend Agastache because they prefer drying out between waterings and not having soggy roots,’ says David McCary, owner at Seattle Sustainable Landscapes.

Agastache, also known as hummingbird mint, is a drought-tolerant perennial that grows in free-draining, rocky, and arid soils in their native habitats. They like sun and warmth and needs to be in soil that drains well. Growing hummingbird mint in wetter conditions comes with a real risk of rot.

If you want a pretty container plant for pollinators, agastache ticks all the right boxes. As the name hummingbird mint suggests, it attracts bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds to its fragrant spikes of tubular flowers, which can be purple, blue, pink, red, orange, yellow, or white.

This live ‘Kudos Red Dwarf’ hummingbird mint plant from Plant Addicts is a compact variety perfectly suited for pots. It produces scarlet blooms from June and will continue to flower all summer and well into fall with deadheading. If you want to grow hummingbird mint in pots, this is a fabulous variety to consider.

Citrus Trees

I also worked at a historic garden that had a large display of citrus trees. These were grown in terracotta pots of different sizes and brought out to create formal displays during the summer.

Such a show of citrus trees was popular in 17th-century European gardens and still looks impressive today. I am not recommending taking that grand approach, but even growing a single lemon tree in a terracotta pot makes a showpiece on a patio and fills the air with fragrance. The dark green foliage and bright fruits blend well with the earthy tones of terracotta and the combo brings a real Mediterranean garden feel to any space.

Citrus trees are plants that thrive in terracotta pots, as they need good drainage and loathe overwatering to perform at their best. They like sun, but the roots want to breathe and remain cooler.

They don’t like to bake in hotter plastic containers. Fill your terracotta pot with a good potting mix and feed citrus trees weekly in summer with a dedicated citrus fertilizer, such as this liquid citrus fertilizer on Amazon.

Terracotta pots are also heavier than their plastic counterparts, so your trees are less likely to fall over on windy days.

A ‘Meyer’ lemon tree like this on Trees.com is one of the best fruit trees to grow in pots. The thin-skinned fruit is a cross between a lemon and an orange. It has a unique sweet and savory taste, and you won’t find such fruit in stores.

What to Shop

As mentioned at the start, some plants simply won’t ever thrive in terracotta containers – no matter how hard you try. Moisture-lovers, plants with delicate roots, and others aren’t suitable for life in clay. Avoid falling foul of this with our guide to 12 plants to never put in terracotta pots.

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