I agree with hoovb too and you I also agree with deva33 advice to look up Al's gritty mix in the search bar. (And I agree sand shouldn't be used) I switched to Al's mix and my plants are doing SOOO much better! But you being in a droit you would obviously want to add more of one of the ingredients to retain more water (turface) but the mix lasts for quite a few years. (From what I hear, you'd probably have to repot before the gritty mix would need to be changed) but you would have to fertilize with most waterings. But take deva's advice and read up on it first to see if it's something that you would be interested in doing. It works great for me.......but I buy distiller water for my plants. Hope this helped! :)

I have a couple of homemade cone shaped boxwood topiaries in pots on my front porch. I'm not an expert but I used Buxus japonicus, the Japanese boxwood that is common here in So. Calif. The plants should almost, but not quite fill the pots. If the pot is 15 in. across at the top and you put a 5 gal. plant in it, you have a few inches all around for it to grow. Make sure the 'urn' you mention has good drainage. I used two cement urn, about 12 inches. across, and planted two spiral topiaries in them. They were expensive plants. They died in those urns. You can keep them in the pots for years. Once they are root bound, though you should do root pruning and put them back in the same pots.

I agree, it's going to irritate you, so I'd take it back. I cook in non-enameled cast iron regularly, it keeps my iron level up according to my old doc, and the flavor doesn't bother me. I can't imagine that such a small flaw would actually affect the flavor of what is cooked in it, but you'll always be wondering if MAAAYYYBBBEEEE that's iron you taste. I also know that enameled cast iron is expensive, so I would take it back if I thought I would be unhappy with the condition, no matter how minute the spot. Annie However, I know that enameled cast iron is expensive and

"..... given that our summers are almost non-existant, does it really matter when I repot?" Yes, it matters, and the farther north or south of the equator you live, the MORE it matters. Plants react predictably to photo-period and photo-intensity. Even if they're in a dark corner of a room, far from a window, they will experience their most robust growth period of the growth cycle in the month before and the month after the summer solstice. This means that most houseplants repotted during that period will recover faster and experience less stress than at any other time. I'm not saying that repotting now is a death sentence, but I wouldn't do it unless it was a last resort situation. I also think that because you don't have a lot of repotting experience, that you would be better served if you plan things so as many factors as possible favor success. If it was my plant, I'd pot up (if you think that's necessary) into a very slightly larger pot and a medium that is very much like the one it's in now, after taking off maybe the bottom 1" of the root mass. It would also be my plan to keep the plant as happy as possible between now & June. I'd use the time between now and then to learn what I can about soils, repotting, long term care of plants in pots, and any other aspects of plant care you think would be helpful. Al