When you buy perennials online, usually they are shipped as "bare-root", which means that the soil has been washed away from the roots after the plants were dug from the field, or removed from the container. Depending on the plants, sometimes the roots are also trimmed. The purpose of this is primarily to lighten the container prior to mailing, and so that the roots can be wrapped in moist newspaper. Postage is expensive and the last thing you want to do is to pay for the mailing of soil.
When you receive these plants, planting is done by creating a small mount of soil at the bottom of the planting hole. The perennial is then placed on top of the mount, and the roots are gently fanned out above the top. The roots are covered with more soil and watered in well. These types of planting tend to create anxiety with new gardeners, but really, there is no reason to. Bare root perennials are typically very sturdy and can easily be transplanted in this manner.
Establishment Ease
Because the gardener spreads out the roots in the process of planting, bare-root perennials tend to establish themselves quickly in their new environment.
The only thing to watch out for is how deep the crown should be planted. The crown is the central hard mass between the green leaves and the roots. Some plants should have the crown planted at soil level; others should have the crown just below soil level. Typical mistakes involve planting the crown too deeply.
While bare-root perennials may at first glance appear more difficult to handle than container-grown plants, in the end, they tend to establish themselves faster and better.
Container-grown perennials
At garden centers most perennials are purchased as pot-grown, or container-grown. This means that the plant is displayed growing in a pot which you bring home. Occasionally, plants are "field grown", dug and potted, prior to sale, but typically the plant has spend most of its short life in this same pot.
When you get container grown plants home, they are planted by digging a hole the size of the pot, removing the plant from the pot, making sure that the top of the soil of the plant's root ball is level with the top of the surrounding soil, and then water well. It could not be any easier, or at least so it seems.
Root-bound Problems
One of the most common problems with a containerized plant is getting a root-bound plant. When a plant has lived a long time in the same pot, the roots may have started to encircle the pot. If this plant is planted like this, the roots will continue to follow the same circle and the result will be a dense mound of roots which has completely displaced available soil. Soil is required for roots to take up nutrients, oxygen, and water.
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