Way too many, and then when water was sitting on top of the plants, I had to tip it over and hold the stuff in while my husband drilled holes.

Thanks for the timely reminder!

Or forgot that the deep dish under the plants still hold water....

This is a great tip. I always drill extra drain holes in pots, the more the better.

I figured that out when my petunias were swimming, one year

Number 1 rule with plants ''drainage drainage drainage''-

gwhizz said:Number 1 rule with plants ''drainage drainage drainage''-

Yep!

I learned that tip a long time ago, we learn by our mistakes. When I find a cute pot I want to use for a plant I put it aside and when I have a few gathered up I put DH to work drilling holes in them. I've got to keep him busy doing something.

I do exactly that too, Pegi!

I even let Bill buy a special drill bit so the ceramic pots wouldn't get busted in the drilling process

Why, what else are you growing there? That you might get busted
{sense of humour?]

you picking on me, smarty pants

Youve worked me out

It's a good idea to check large pots (like urns or pots over about 5 gallons size) to see if the drain holes are still open. A friend just lost a treasured rose because the pot the rose was planted failed to drain properly. He didn't know the cause of the slow decline and death of the rose until he finally got around to pulling the dead rose out of the pot and found the pot to have standing water in the bottom.

Jeremy

I like setting containers on top of something absorbent, like a bit of toweling or cotton flannel (or denim, or Tee shirt material, or a white sock ...)

If the absorbent pad isn't damp, neither is the bottom layer of soil.
Or the hole got plugged!

When I overwater or it rains, the pad will help to pull excess water rapidly out of the bottom inch or so of soil. Otherwise, water tends to "perch" in the bottom layers of fine or water-retaining mixes, so much that roots can't live in the bottom few inches (periodic drowning and rotting). And it just can't be healthy to have waterlogged, anaerobic soil anywhere in a pot.

My guess is that many potted plants avoid this fate by having root balls so thick that they can drink up the excess water so fast that they drink the perched water before they can rot.

Like a frat boy with his head held in a punch bowl: he's fine as long as he can drink the whole bowl before he drowns.

I like that saying: "The three most important thing to potted plants are drainage, drainage and drainage!"