The worst thing to do with a 2" up calibre tree is to let it fruit the first season, unless it comes with about a half ton of dirt. I'm sorry, but if you're impatient plant some blackberries or fall bearing raspberries. Part of my business is selling bearing age fruit trees in the southeastern NY area to impatient and usually wealthy customers. I instruct them to remove all flowers the first year because a transplanted tree that has started to fruit is tougher to get established than a sexually immature bare root. Next years flowers and this years fruit take a lot of energy to make, and it comes at the expense of root growth. You can't stop a mature tree from making next year's flowers but at least you should remove this year's (or the fruit as soon as it forms). I have potted trees in 15 gallon pots, but I even like them to get a lot of root in the ground before cropping them. Incidentally, I don't ship.

"i wanted to try to grow larger leaves on my epipremnum aureum." In nature, the plants remain juvenile while sprawling on the ground until they begin climbing up a tree and then the successive increases in leaf size are large. When mature, the leaves are up to 39 in long and 18 in wide with slits similar to the slits of monstera deliciosa but fewer. I have tried to find scientific papers about the mechanism of transformation but could find none. If there is a hormonal signal between the climbing process and the terminal bud, it should be possible to cause maturation without climbing by exogenous application of some chemical plant growth regulator (PGR) while the vine is relatively short. People have been able to slightly increase leaf size with the (PGR) uniconazole: http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/27/3/222.full.pdf

'Sitting and sulking' is a good analogy for what woody plants do during the acclimation process. For the plants, it's all about getting a root system out into the new environment in order to support that hulking plant body. Very little growth (other than the roots) will occur, and the plant will also not be able to send energy resources (from the leaves) to defend against pests or injury from pruning, etc. Quite literally, ALL of that energy will be devoted to what the plant decides is most important.....and that will be root growth. During this acclimation process, a plant is highly susceptible to damage from pests, heat, drought, freeze, etc., etc. It's a most stressful time for plants. Depending upon the climate and other environmental factors, it can take several months per inch of trunk caliper for a woody plant to acclimate. Smaller (and I don't mean tiny) is better. I never recommend anything larger than a 1 inch caliper for trees and (usually) a one gallon (sometimes 3 gallon) for shrubs. In our own yard, we use small grafts and seedlings, which we get to watch grow several feet per year from the get-go. But we've digressed from pinkthumbita's question, which is reference to herbaceous perennials. I'd recommend shopping at high end, privately owned garden centers for large container grown perennials.

Thanks very much, oldroser! I will ask at Rosedale next time I'm there. They may very well have mature evergreens for sale even though most of their stock that's in the "main" areas is much smaller than I was looking for. I just never thought to ask them about trees, though I buy nearly all my roses and shrubs there. I have never been to Twombly, actually, so thank you for the suggestion :) Will check them out too.