Handmade Ceramic Plant Pots in Vancouver, Chosen by Hand

From October to March, most of the living you do in Vancouver happens indoors. The patio chairs go under a cover, the light drops by four in the afternoon, and the room you spend the evening in is the whole garden you have. A plant in a pot you actually like is the easiest way to make that room feel alive.

That is what we sell at DH Garden Centre in Kitsilano: handmade ceramic plant pots, chosen one at a time in Vietnam, and the help to match one to the plant and the room it is going into. This page covers how to choose one, where ours come from, and how a visit works, with links to the longer articles.

A green corner for the months you spend indoors

Nobody wakes up wanting a pot. What you want is the corner by the window to stop looking empty, or the plant you were given to look like it belongs in the room instead of sitting in its nursery plastic. The pot is what turns a plant into part of the home.

Handmade ceramic does that in a way a moulded pot does not. The glaze pools a little differently on every piece, the walls are not perfectly even, and two pots from the same kiln are not quite the same.

How to choose a pot that will not drown the roots

Looks get you to pick the pot up. Four things decide whether the plant does well in it.

Start with the hole

A hole in the bottom is the one thing we will not talk you out of. Vancouver homes are damp for half the year and soil dries slowly, so water that cannot leave the pot sits against the roots. Our article on how to choose a pot for your plant in Vancouver starts with the hole and works outward from there.

If you fall for a pot with no hole, use it as a cover pot. Leave the plant in its plastic nursery pot, drop that inside the ceramic one, and lift it out to water. You get the look without the soggy roots.

Size: a little bigger, not a lot

Go up by roughly one to two inches in width from the pot the plant is in now. Jump much further than that and the extra soil holds water the roots cannot reach yet. If the plant is small to begin with, our piece on small plant pots and mini planters shows the sizes that suit desks, windowsills and gifts.

Glazed or unglazed

Unglazed terracotta breathes, so soil in it dries faster. That suits plants that like to dry out between waterings and people who tend to overwater. Glazed ceramic holds moisture longer and gives you colour. The old debate in terracotta pots vs plastic pots walks through what each one does to the soil.

Pots that stay outside through a Vancouver winter

Rain cracks more pots here than frost does. Water collects in the pot, then a cold night freezes it and something has to give. A pot with a hole, raised off the ground on feet so the hole can drain, comes through most winters. Thin decorative pots should come inside. The four rules are in ceramic pots outside in winter in Vancouver.

Where these pots come from

Hien, who co-founded the shop, is from Vietnam. The pots come from two ceramic regions there: Bat Trang, a pottery village near Hanoi that has been firing clay for centuries, and Binh Duong, near Saigon, known for its large glazed planters. We choose them by hand rather than ordering from a catalogue, then they travel to Vancouver by sea.

Because of that, every shipment is different. A glaze you saw in spring may not come back, and something new will be on the floor in its place. Two of our longer stories are about the people behind the work: Binh Duong ceramics, a living craft, and a Father’s Day story about the man who makes our handmade bonsai pots.

The same trips are where the handwoven bamboo baskets come from, in very small numbers, and the hand painted pieces covered in why handmade ceramics are the 2026 gift trend.

Read before you come in

These are the articles people ask us about most, grouped by the question they answer.

When to repot, and what goes wrong if you wait

Finding a pot with some character

Come and see them in Kitsilano

Pots are not sold online, because weight, colour and the feel of the glaze are hard to judge from a photo. The shop is at 3742 West 10th Avenue in Kitsilano, Vancouver, and it is open every day from 11:00 am to 6:30 pm. More about the shop itself, and who you will meet there, is on our page about visiting DH Garden Centre in Kitsilano.

Bring the plant with you. We look at the roots, you choose the pot, and if you buy it here we repot the plant at the counter with the soil on us, up to 5 litres. If the plant is too big to carry, a photo of it and of the spot it lives in gets us most of the way.

DH Garden Centre
3742 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V6R 2G4
Phone: 604-929-7335
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Questions we get at the counter

Ceramic or plastic, which is better for a houseplant?

Plastic is light and holds moisture. Ceramic is heavier, so a tall plant does not tip, and unglazed ceramic lets soil dry faster, which helps if you water too much. For the plant, either works as long as there is a hole. For the room, that is your call.

Does a plant pot need a drainage hole?

If you water the plant in it, yes. Without a hole, water collects at the bottom and the roots sit in it. A pot with no hole still has a job as a cover pot: keep the plant in its plastic nursery pot, set that inside, and lift it out to water.

Can ceramic pots stay outside over a Vancouver winter?

Many can, if water can get out. Use a pot with a hole, lift it onto feet so the hole is not sitting on wet ground, and let the rain drain through. Thin walled decorative pots are the ones that crack, so bring those in from November to March.

How does bringing my plant in for repotting work?

Carry the plant in as it is. We look at the roots, suggest a size, and you pick the pot you like. Buy the pot here and we repot it at the counter while you wait, with soil included up to 5 litres. There is no need to book.

Do you ship pots?

No. The pots are sold in the shop in Kitsilano only. We would rather you see the glaze and lift the pot before you decide. Fall bulbs and fertilizer are the things we ship.