Small plants, actually cared for

Most houseplant advice is written for six-inch nursery pots and up. A three-inch pot is a different problem: it dries out in two days, it heats up fast on a windowsill, and it dies quietly. These guides are written for the small stuff.

Everything here is free, there is no shop, and nothing is for sale. Where a specific supply actually matters we link to a retailer and say so.

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The three things that actually kill small plants

After light, almost every dead houseplant comes down to one of these:

No drainage hole. A pot without a hole holds a reservoir of stagnant water at the bottom. Roots need air; standing water removes it. If the pot has no hole, it is a decorative cover and the plant needs a plastic nursery pot inside it.
Watering on a schedule. "Once a week" is a guess. The soil decides: push a finger in to the second knuckle, and water only when it comes out dry. In summer that may be every four days; in January, every three weeks.
The wrong light, permanently. A plant in too little light does not die dramatically — it etiolates, stretching pale and thin toward the window for months. Moving it once is easier than fixing a year of bad growth.

Small pots amplify all three. A four-inch pot has roughly a quarter the soil volume of an eight-inch pot, so it drains faster, dries faster, and buffers mistakes much less. Check small plants twice as often as large ones.

Start here if you own nothing yet

The buying guide covers which small plants survive a normal apartment, which ones people regret, and the two supplies worth owning before you buy anything.