Choosing an extra large planter is mostly the same as choosing any planter, until it isn't. Above about 48 inches three practical questions start deciding the order, and none of them are about the planting.
One: can the extra large planter get there
Measure the route, not the terrace. A 72 inch box will not turn on a stair landing and a 60 inch cube will not go through a standard doorway. Gateways, lift cars, corridor turns and the gap beside a parked car decide more of these orders than the design does.
Length is usually the obstacle rather than weight. Fiberglass is light for its size — the 100 inch Hudson is 111.5 lb empty — so two people can often carry something they cannot physically turn a corner with.
Two: what it weighs once filled
Empty weights here run from about 12 lb to 270.9 lb for the largest Montroy cube. Filled is a different order of magnitude, and it is the filled figure that matters on a roof, a balcony or a podium deck.
Do not fill a deep planter with soil to the base. Jay Scotts call for lightweight filler below the root zone, and several models take an internal shelf so a nursery pot sits near the rim. It keeps the weight down without shortening the root run that matters. Our guide to filling a large planter sets out the method, and rooftop planters: weight, access and wind covers the structural side.
⚠️ We publish empty weights, not structural advice. What a roof or balcony can carry is a question for a structural engineer.
Three: how it ships
Some sizes here travel by ground carrier and some go by freight, and it is not always the size you would guess: a long narrow planter can ship parcel where a shorter wide one cannot. The shipping mode is shown per size at checkout.
What extra large does not fix
It does not make a small space feel bigger. One large planter in a tight courtyard reads as an obstruction. Scale works when there is floor to spare around it.
It is not more stable by default. A tall narrow form at 60 inches has a small footprint and a large sail area. Height and stability are not the same purchase.
It cannot be repositioned on a whim. Decide the position before it is filled. Emptying and refilling a planter of this size is most of a day's work.
Drainage and finish
Nothing is drilled unless you ask. On a large planter Jay Scotts' standard is one to two inch holes roughly every 12 inches, which on a 60 inch planter is four or five. A drilled planter is final sale. See the drainage guide.
All twenty-five are finished to order in any of the 20 standard colors or a custom match. At this scale a custom match to a building's palette is common, and custom color orders are final sale.
