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What size pot will my plant come in?
Plants are grown in plant bands to encourage strong, well-formed roots that don’t spiral like they often do in round pots—meet The Big Fella.
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Plants in The Big Fella pot develop a robust root system and can be planted directly in the ground or moved into a larger container.
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Tip: Small plants don’t like oversized pots. When potting up, increase the pot size gradually—avoid more than doubling the current pot’s size.
Care note: Even though it’s rooted in the Big Fella Pot, this is still a young plant. Water carefully, especially during hot summer months, to give it the best chance to thrive.
Why use this pot and why not ship bare root?
This style of pot is designed to promote air pruning of roots and prevent them from spiraling inside the container. I ship plants in these pots to protect the roots—especially the proteoid roots found on members of the Protea family—so you receive a plant in its healthiest state, ready to thrive in your garden.
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Air pruning happens when roots grow out of the openings at the base of the pot into dry air. This halts their growth and stimulates many new roots to form, creating a dense, vigorous root system that helps the plant establish quickly in its new location.
Proteoid roots are clusters of short lateral roots that form a 1–4" mat just beneath the mulch layer. They secrete small amounts of acid (harmless to humans and soil critters) to improve nutrient availability.
These roots are specialists at thriving in low-phosphorus soils and can be damaged by too much phosphorus—so ignore the online myths and stick with what I use at the nursery.
Bare-rooting before shipping and bouncing around in a box of peanuts can damage the roots and leave you looking at a sad plant on arrival—not how we roll around here.