You have gotten a lot of advice here, some of which may seem a bit contradictory, so I am not surprized that you don't have a clear idea of what to do. First, let me say that as I have read this thread I have not jumped in because what I have seen here has generally been good advice. But I see now that you need a referee or something, so I will try to help. One of the problems is that all trees are a little different. Not only is the degree of root "congestion" in the pot different, but different kinds of trees respond differently to different treatments. But I can't see--and feel, etc.--the roots you are dealing with, and I am not familiar with all the different species of trees and how they may react to different treatments. But let me give some general advice that will help you. First, if you do any of the things recommended, it will be either good or OK. Slitting the rootball in thirds will keep any of the encircling roots from strangling some of the roots later. But undergropund roots generally don't strangle the tree--roots generally graft over themselves. The real danger is a root that encircles the base of the trunk (girdling root). These must be removed. But better than slitting the root ball is as much as possible to "tease out" some of the encircling roots so they can be extended a bit. But often the root ball is so tight with the roots crossing each other, both in and then outside, that this is virtually impossible. In this case slitting the ball in three places is about all you can do. If you can tease out/unwind some of the roots (and you can both do this and cut some larger/longer encircling roots) you will need a big hole to allow them to spread out a bit. But some of the roots you are able to tease out/unwind may be very, very long. In that case it may be beST to shorten them a bit, or a lot, because if you don't, they will still encircle the root system or make a tangle. But if that happens, it is not really fatal. Sometimes with some kinds of trees in pots the root ball just seems like a dense fibrous mass. It is hard to find individual roots to tease out/unwind. In that case three slits and then some roughing up of the root mass to loosen it a bit is about all you can do. If you do any of the things recommended here, you will be doing more than most people do when they plant these root bound trees. Have confidence and go ahead and do the best you can--use your common sense. A lot of this will be intuitive as you start working with these root balls. Just see what you can do to undo some of the tangle, one way or the other. But one warning--these root bound trees will need more watering for maybe up to three years than a tree not so root bound. The roots will need time to get into the native soil--water that gets to the root mass that was originally in the pot will not last more than a day or two in hot weather. The more roots you can unwind/tease out and get into the native soil, the more drought resistance the tree will have. --Spruce

No, sorry it's not, the two soils maybe be completely different & not be compatible, bad idea. Not sure where folks are getting this idea about transplant shock; someone else said this earlier this week too. Maybe this is true for more delicate plants, AVs & or tropicals, but not for Sans. I've seen 'em be trod on, stepped on, yanked out of planters & they recover. I believe it's far more important they get the right mix (must be fast draining), even if it means unpotting several times to get it right. Yes, they're adjusting to their new home but these are mighty tough & rugged plants, which can adjust to most things w/ little difficulty except wet/soggy conditions.

"When trees are harvested from the nursery row, many roots are cut in the process. Wherever these cuts take place, new roots initiate at roughly right angles to the existing, now-cut root." I used to think that, but ran across a contrary article before. So I did some quick Googling. Here's an article on cutting circling roots from landscape plants - http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/woody/remove-circling.shtml - stating: "Cut roots at the point where they begin to circle so new roots that grow from the cut will point away from the trunk. New roots will grow more-or-less parallel to the direction of the root section just behind the cut, but some could grow in as much as a 90 degree angle to the cut." Some site called 'TreeBag' is a page on root pruning - http://treebag.com/research-article/root-pruning-a-touchy-subject-2/ - and down aways states regarding new root growth "After digging, storing, and pruning, bareroot shade trees typically have several primary roots with relatively few fine roots. The primary roots are relatively thick, and would have been pruned either by the digging process or secondarily by the work crews that grade and bundle the trees. For the trees species used in this experiment, and most tree species to my knowledge, new roots emerge from primary roots at or near the pruned root tip. If trees were planted in an open field, roots would emerge from the pruned tips and grow out away from the tree." This is a point of curiosity to me, since from what I understand a common practice with pot bound trees is to make vertical cuts to the exterior root ball to prevent girdling roots. I wonder if it's beneficial to make lots of cuts around the root ball, not just a few? So fewer new roots would encircle? Richard.

Blooming can get interrupted by cold temperatures. How long will depend on the weather. The plant may restart again in 2-4 weeks. Or if the timing of additional cold spells is right, it may take 1-2 months. For example, after a single drop into the low 20s, the shrub may take 2-4 weeks to restart blooming. But like I said before, one of my December-January blooming japonicas once got interrupted for 2 months and restarted blooming in mid March. During that 2 month period, we got several below freezing drops that stayed "on" for a while so I suspect that this prolonged drop made the shrub delay blooming more and more. Water deeply before these drops to prevent bud browning/drop. The color change may either be iron chlorosis or too much sun. When the tree canopy that provides shade looses all the leaves in the Fall/Winter, for example, they get more sun than normal and in mid-winter, I notice a tendency for the leaves to turn lighter green with bronze. If it appears to be chlorosis, amend the soil with a soil acidifier. I do not take action when bronzing due to the sun as the leaves turn darker green several weeks later, all on their own. Do not forget to water if the soil feels dry and it has not rained recently. Nice bloom in the middle picture!