Karen, I love your observation about the potting medium in purchased plants. I find it depends on where you buy them to some degree. But in general I pull the plant out of the pot and look at it. If it's good soil I leave it for the most part and just loosen or spread out the roots. If it has circling roots I first loosen and untangle what I can, then hold it in my hands soil side down (fingers at the bottom of the soil, plant top toward wrists) and gently split the chunk apart at the bottom with my fingers, then rotate the whole thing 1/4 turn and split again. If the soil is like a chunk of cardboard, I water it well first, let it sit for awhile, and then loosen the roots and tap or shake off some of the soil. I do just slice off roots that are sticking out at the bottom if the pot. Overall I pay more attention to the area where I am putting the plant, to make sure it is prepared appropriately.
When I first started gardening, I used to very carefully unpot the plants and try to put them in the ground without hardly touching them.
Now I practically beat on them.
