The bird of paradise we were talking about at the beginning is the shorter orange/blue bloomer that gets only about 4ft tall. I think the term 'pot bound' might have been misunderstood, as we were saying in another thread about this plant that it really doesn't bloom well until it had made itself a tight clump. Even in the ground where it has room to spread, it makes a crowded clump then blooms and blooms. So if you have a small starter plant of this type, you should definitely leave it and not divide it until it has increased to a good size clump or you'll never see blooms.
Other plants behave the same way - my Agapanthus pouts for about 2 years after I divide it, then once it's crowded itself again, it blooms like crazy as long as I leave it alone. Tiffany's absolutely right about the drainage, for sure. I add new potting soil, a bit of fert and amendments to the top of the pot each year, and it 'eats' up all those goodies over the summer and fall.
