Plant roots


Unique or Atypical Rooting Habits of Certain Plants
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	These plant 'groups' will rarely be 'rooted in' to a quart pot due to their growth habits.
#1	A number of Perennials have Tuberous Roots. They have few to almost no hair or feeder roots. Because of this, they don't 'root in' to a quart pot the way most Perennials do. If they appear to be rooted in, it's because the tuberous roots have become twisted and scrunched! They should be loosened when planted. These plants, in general are meant to send their tuberous roots deep 'straight' down into the soil -- not around and around in a pot. If you'll look at this photo of Acanthus 'New Zealand Gold' freshly dug from the garden -- it has almost no hair roots -- much like a carrot. So you would not expect to find Acanthus 'rooted in' to a quart pot. That would be foreign to it's nature. Examples: Acanthus, Asclepias tuberosa, Dictamnus (early on), Goodyeara
#2	Bulbous and some Tuberous Rooted - Plants that emerge from Bulbs lose all feeder/hair roots each year and re-grow them, so early in the season (and once they've gone dormant again), they have no roots at all. (Think of a mesh bag of Daffodils in a garden center -- when dormant that don't have nor need roots.) Examples: Alliums, Agapanthus, Arisaema, Claytonia, Crocosmia, Dicentra cucullaria, D. canadensis, Erythronium, Gladiolus, Mertensia, Trillium, Zephyranthes
#3	Woodland & Diminutive Plants - Many small woodland plants come under the above but others are just diminutive plants that, due to size, would take forever to roots into a quart. Examples: Ophiopogon (Dwarf Form), Mitchella, Medeola,
#4	Ferns - Many ferns lose their feeder roots over winter and don't start to grow new roots until they start growing foliage, so in Spring have few feeder roots.
	Pot Bound Plants vs. Heavily Rooted -- There is widely divergent thoughts on this topic! Our opinion, based on much experience, is this: A heavily rooted Perennial or even shrub is rarely a problem and often an asset. Just loosen the roots some, so the plant knows it's free from the pot and plant. Please don't assume that because a plant is heavily rooted that it's old -- Aster tataricus and it's dwarf from 'Jindai' are strongly, strongly rooted into quarts almost as soon as they start sending up their massive foliage BUT we've planted this plant when the pot was so full of roots it was bulged out of the pot and had almost no soil left and it just hit the ground growing. Girdled Roots: This on the other hand is bad. When the pot (usually shrubs) is so full of roots that they have started to grow around and around the pot, that's a girdled plant. Those roots do need to be untangled, unwound or, if not possible, cut.
	How to plant plants with little or no hair roots Support the stem between your index and middle finger so your palm, fingers are supporting the top of the soil as you turn the plant over. Remove the vertical (not leaning) pot near the already prepared planting hole, and gently turn the plant over into the hole. There is generally enough compaction of soil, that even without roots, if done gently, the soil ball stays intact. If it doesn't, no worries! The plant has all the roots it needs -- just less roots the 'we' need! Just firm any loose soil that fall off around it and water well to remove in air pockets. The above very young plant will eventually get a full pot of roots but just for photo purposes, we're showing it with almost no roots so you can see that even with no visible hair roots on the side, plants can be removed with the soil ball intact. (We do this all the time to check on the progress of roots for shipping, so our staff can flip them over, pop them out and back without even thinking about it!)