I have a number of mini-bogs. What's worked best for me is an oak barrel w/liner. Most half barrels will seal and hold water but some plants (iris, mini cat-tails, rushes) will eventually push out the sides and cause leaks. I have several glazed clay pots that I caulked the drain hole, they work well for smaller flowering plants. My favorite is mini cats in an oak barrel, they get to about 4' tall, 6' with barrel. I also have one of the those large double walled plastic pots with no drain hole, it has the advantage of being much lighter, therefore moveable. None of my pots have drainage, I may soon be installing a drain in a large (100 gallon) bog garden. If a drain is required you can drill a hole in an oak barrel and install a garden spigot, we have one of these in our biological filter for our pond. Just seal it good with silicone sealer as you put it in. Anything that will hold water can be used for a bog pot - I have some iris in an old galvanized mop bucket and they look pretty cool! Most importantly is mosquito control, break a mosquito dunk up and put pieces in the pots or at dusk everyday you will be running for cover.
Happy gardening,
Dee

Dee,

Sorry, I wasn't clear in my original post. I was more specifically wondering about the designs for sphagnum peat mini-bogs for plants like carnivores (thus the question about drainage). That is a good suggestion though about using silicone to fill the holes of ceramic and other containers. I've done little mini-ponds before and it is amazing how much wildlife a tiny little container of water can attract! Thanks for the response, post a picture if you have any.

Hi Varthkin,
For sphagnum based bogs I find that the free standing
half barrel liner and the cement mixer troughs are the ideal
containers for a contained bog environment.
While just about anything that holds water can be used for growing sphagnum I really think that size is important and that larger containers allow for some variation in plant placement by varying the surface level of the sphag.
In my sole encounter with a natural bog up in Northern California there were high places in the bog where willows grew and low places where the Lycopodiella could be found next to and in the streamlets that coursed through the bog.
As you probably know VFT actually do better up higher and not low down in a bog and this seems to be true of the rein orchids that frequent natural bogs. So with the larger sizes the ability to modify substrate height really allows for a greater variety in the kinds of bog growing plants that can be displayed.

I presume you have seen my bog experiences webjournal??
If not here is the link to the front page. The bog banner is I think the second one down-just click on it.
T Mans site

Hola- Write me an e-mail at my ad. please! Thank you- Luis