I'm getting contradictory information from a few books on house plants. One book said that you do not have to keep upsizing the container. It said that the roots need to be trimmed back a little to allow room for new soil and fresh root growth.

My pots are all decorative. I really don't want to put them in plastic buckets. Has anyone tried this method? Are there some root sensitive plants you should not do this with?

Hiya, Catwoman!

The answer is "either" "or" -
You can trim the roots.. but that
will result in stunted growth.

OR, you can re-pot. It's up to
you as to what affect you want to
achieve.

Look here:

http://www.betterlawns.com/betterlawns/june98/blg_4.htm

I wouldn't recommend the plastic bucket. It depends on what the plant is but most of my plants like clay pots instead of anything plastic. The roots can easily get moldy in plastic ones. The best chice is to have quite a big clay pot with a hole/holes on the bottom and a few pieces of an old broken pot on the bottom under the soil which will stop the roots from getting too much water.

if u replace the top 2 inches of soil once a year with good quality loam or potting compost and feed every 2 weeks in the summer, with a liquid fertiliser that should go a long way towards keeping the plant healthy. Some plants need to be potbound to encourage them to flower or fruit. Others have to be potted on every year, up one size of pot only. you'll have to look each plant up individually to discover which types you've got.