When buying any type of plant; vegetable, bedding plants, or houseplants; always count the number of actual plants in the container. You may as well buy five plants as buy three, and there are always variable amounts in them. Then when you get home you can set out each one separately and have many more plants for the same price. Especially for houseplants, divide the subshoots into good potting soil in separate pots. It will take a little time but each little plant will make a whole new houseplant. That gives you 5 or 6 for the price of 1, and you won't have to worry about the original plant overgrowing its container.
Hi Trace: I do the same thing when I buy a whole flat of flowers I pick each one of them out of the flat individually and look at each one to see how many are growing in the individual pot. I make sure there are 2 or more of each plant in each pot and then I pay for them and happily take them home.
And be especially gentle when separating the root system of each, not buying them too very young, and using a very sharp pair of boning scissors or larger steak knife. When the soil is slightly dried out, But then remember to immediately water after placing into good potting soil, and shade from the sun for 24 hours, with good support according to their transplant size.
Remember to add larger support according to what you expect them to do. Read the original label describing the plant's characteristics, always trying to get at least one of the id tabs/sticks to take home with the plant for reference. I try to find plants that have the extra plants planted as far away from the original/largest plant as possible, keeping in mind that the larger one is the strongest of the bunch that tells me the others may not be so strong even when handled with care! This is why we are to keep only the strongest of several seedlings and prune out the rest because if left to grow, the smaller ones will steal nutrients and space from the healthiest one. : )
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