The pots with "a cross at the bottom to support the compost" David Pilling described are called "band pots" in the USA. They're intended to be held in deep grid-bottom flats (trays) (called "prop[agation] flats), but if the pots are going to be handled and sold individually, growers often cut squares of window screening to hold the compost in. You can get many sizes (both height and width) from nursery supply companies, but you have to buy in quantity. They are good for young bulbs. I don't use many myself because I move my pots around so much and don't want to fuss with cutting the screens for the base; I use 3.5-inch plastic pots with 8 drainage holes (bottom and side) manufactured by the Anderson company. There are a couple of manufacturers of plastic pots in my area. Many other kinds of pots can be bought here, including very large ones with a very open grid intended for growing young trees in the field -- they can be root pruned and lifted when ready to sell. You could line them with woven groundcloth if you wanted a very free-draining free-standing pot. Now that hydroponic growing of cannabis is so popular, suppliers stock various sizes of plastic mesh pots, but most of them have too large a mesh to keep young bulbs from growing out, but I did find some useful 6-inch ones at one store. I've preferred mesh pots for years for growing geophytes that produce extensive annual roots, such as some irises. That discussion is probably as annoying to people in other parts of the country as Northwesterners' frequent mention of ground pumice as a growing medium. Potter Stan Gibson has made some very attractive "long toms" (tall cylindrical pots), and I have a few; one of them hosts Lewisia tweedyi, for instance. I also have a couple of terracotta long toms that were custom-made for Rae Selling Berry, a great gardener and primrose enthusiast of the previous age, but they're probably too fragile to be anything but collector's items. Such pots were the choice since Victorian times for growing alpines with deep-delving roots. When you have to accommodate the root extension of a delicate plant, you can knock out the bottom of its clay pot and set it into a larger, deeper pot without disturbing the root system; I have a Daphne growing that way, and it's getting too heavy. Jane McGary, Portland, Oregon, USA _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…