Is it better to water plants from the top or the bottom?

Placing a pot up to half its depth in a bowl of water and letting it stay until the surface soil feels damp assures a somewhat better distribution of water through the soil than if you water from the top. It also assures that the deep roots of such plants as snake plant get adequate moisture. But it is usually easier to water plants most of the time from above; and if you don’t use icy water and don’t wet the foliage, you can do no harm even to such finicky plants as African violets.