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Royalty Needs Answers!

(Leucadendron 'Safari Sunset' in full glory)
Queenie the Short writes:
I recently bought some very young plants for my shady back patio. They are all quite small right now, but I'm unclear as to how big of containers to plant them in. I have winter daphne, evergreen clematis, and two species of hellebore among other things. I live in zone 7.
Thanks for your time.

First of all, Queenie - are you 'Queenie the Short' as in 'Pliny the Elder', or are you Queen of all that is Short? Regardless, consider me your royal horticulturist...
Yours is an issue I wrestled with, and I lost quite a few times. Whenever I'd buy a small plant that was going to get large, I'd think - why not save a step and plant this bitty plant in a big ole pot? Well, every time I did that, the baby plant would up and die. Experienced gardeners know all about this, and they have a system called 'potting up' to prevent tiny plants from rattling around in too large pots and eventually dying. You should never plant anything in a pot that is bigger than the rootball (the area of roots and dirt that holds together when the plant is out of it's container) times three... that way your plantlets have room to flex their roots and grow, but aren't adrift in a huge sea of potting soil. See, if the pot is too big, the soil will drain too fast and dry out too quickly. So use the 3x the rootball rule, and change the pots to 3x bigger ones every 6 months or so as the little plants grow. Yes, it would be easier if one could just pop them into a big container and let that be that - but that is not the gardening way. Our path is one of hard work, but the rewards are great. Thank you for your question, your Majesty, and keep reading!