A flower pot with a built-in sprinkler? Why didn’t I think of that? Fortunately, the folks at Daisy Rain Garden did, and the result is a clever way to connect an entire chain of containers to one watering hose.

I received three Daisy Rain sprinkler pots, 25 feet of 17-mm hose, a timer, and the risers, connectors and sprinkler heads needed to automatically water the three containers, also known as the Daisy Rain Starter Kit with Timer.

The Daisy Rain kit came with everything I needed to set up three self-watering growing containers

We assembled and tested the kit in mid-summer on a corner of our back patio.

Setting Up the Daisy Rain Pots

These are good-sized pots, 7 gallons each, about 18 inches in diameter and just under 16 inches high.  Although terra cotta-colored, they are made of heavy plastic.

That might not sound so special until you turn the pots upside down. Each container has a channel cut into the bottom that you can run a hose through to connect to a riser and sprinkler head. A hole in the center of the pot makes it easy to guide the riser through.

Each Daisy Rain pot has a channel running the width of the pot to run a hose under, and a center hole for easy sprinkler connection. The pots also have drainage holes.

The Daisy Rain system came with clear, illustrated instructions.

The instructions that came with the kit were clear and helpful

Once you decide where to set up your chain of pots, stretch out your hose and make cuts in the hose under the center hole of each container. Once you cut the hose, you can twist on a T connector to hold the riser and attach both cut ends of hose. Then repeat that step until you have risers installed in the center of all your empty pots.

The company recommends running water through the hoses at this point until the water runs clear; this will remove any dirt that could clog the sprinkler heads.

Finally, screw on the threaded adapter and sprinkler head for each pot.

Just set up the pots in a row, and then cut your hose to match the hole’s location for each pot. You can measure the distance for an evenly spaced setup.

The hose that came with the system is easy to cut and the connectors all twisted in easily

Watering Performance

We filled our pots after testing the sprinkler heads. I planted flowers in one, cucumber seeds in another and lettuce seed in a third so I could test how well the sprinkler covered the diameter of the pot.

I was worried the sprinkler would not reach all my lettuce seed, which I sprinkled all around the top layer of soil. But this was one of the most even distributions of lettuce seedlings I’ve ever seen – they came up all around the pot and were fairly uniform in height.

The pattern of the sprinkler on my cucumber seeds; it reaches the entire diameter

Here are my lettuce seedlings about two weeks later

We had a lot of drainage at the bottom, although we found no evidence of leaks. We added inexpensive flexible trays below our pots and the water still flowed fine all the way through the final pot.

Testing the Timer

Having a timer with your Daisy Rain Sprinkler Pots make this a great solution for watering when you’re away, as well as for saving water. The Agrifim timer is automatic, but also has manual and rain delay modes to stop the cycle when your pots are wet from rainfall. The timer connects to any standard faucet and you then connect your feeder hose to it.

You can set frequency of watering (as often as 1 hour through every 72 hours) and run time (anywhere from 3 to 120 minutes). One small annoyance is that you have to program the time at the actual time you want it to water the next day (or whatever schedule you set). Other than that, it is easy to use and worked reliably.

The Agrifim timer with the kit helps save water through programming watering cycles

Favorite Features

The design of the Daisy Rain Sprinkler Pots is brilliant. It is easy to set up and to run. I especially like the flexibility of the system – you can add to or tier the chain of pots, and can find connecting hoses on the company’s website. You also can set up your containers so the hose doesn’t show, such as running it below a sidewalk and in through the back of the container’s channel.

My plants are happy and healthy, and I still love the symmetry and ease of design

The system can work with a regular garden hose (17 mm) or a drip system. Furthermore, the sprinkler heads that come with the Daisy Rain Sprinkler Pots are adjustable, so even if you have to increase pressure to the feeder hose, you can lower the flow on plants in any of the pots in the chain.

My other favorite feature is ease of use. I did most of the assembly alone, and the instructions were simple to follow.

Warranty

Daisy Rain will replace any defective parts free of charge. Any damaged pots can be replaced for two years for only the cost of shipping.

Recommendation

The Daisy Rain Sprinkler Pots work as advertised, and the idea behind them is more than clever.

I had some problems with water running out of the pots and onto my patio. I don’t believe it was from leaks, although we had a little bit of leakage around one connection between the adapter and riser. You can add a little Teflon™ tape around the threads to stop or slow that. A great solution is to water more frequently for less time, which is easy to do with the timer included in the kit. You also can adjust the flow on your sprinkler head once you see how well water wicks around the pot’s diameter.

Here is a tested sprinkler head inside a Daisy Rain pot

I also recommend using good potting soil (made for containers), as I would for any container planting, and letting the soil settle in the pots for a day (and a light watering test) before planting and watering your seeds or plants.

Read more tips about self-watering containers in our tutorial >> All About Self-Watering Planters and Containers

The water pooling below pots is a non-issue if you plan to set the pots on gravel or soil instead of a patio or deck, or do not normally use drip trays under other containers. Of course, if the clever people at Daisy Rain Garden Systems can come up with a collection system, this product will be even more useful!

The gentle sprinkling action of a Daisy Rain pot sprinkler head

Where to Buy

The Daisy Rain Garden system is only available on their website at www.daisyraingarden.com.

A starter kit with three pots and all connectors sells for $105.00 (plus $40.00 shipping). The kit with the timer is $149.00 (free shipping).

The company also carries accessories such as extra pots or sprinklers and connecting hoses on its website.

It is not available on Amazon and the company has no plans to go that route. The company is developing a relationship with Ace Hardware and you will likely find the Sprinkler Pots there in the not-too-distant future.

Each riser, connector, adaptor and sprinkler head comes in a packaged kit