Hello FG: Congrats on your new purchase. All M. alba I have seen have their graft unions exposed above ground. Not sure if it is trying to avoid infections at the union. The seller is not trying to trick you about the vigor of M. champaca rootstock. They are hardier than M. alba and they are much more available. In general, grafted plants bloom faster than seed-grown ones and I think M. alba is no exception. Grafting is also the preferred way of propagation in China over air-layering, but there they sometimes do approach grafting and keep both root systems for the eventual M. alba plant, which is said to be more vigorous than regularly grafted ones.

I have bought a michelia alba yesterday it is a grafted one. And it is about 2ft tall and in a 2 gallon pot. Should I repot it or not please give some advice on what to do.

Hi: I had been trying to airlayering my michelia alba tree for many times, but all of them were not sucessful! But on June 2011, I tried the airlayering my michelia alba again. On July 16 2012, I discovered that the one I airlayed was rooting. I can see the roots coming out form the pouch. I am so happy. I groww my michelia alba tree in my San Francisco backyard for more than 25 years and it is about 25 feet tall and each year it bloom a lot of fragant flowers. If you want to see my Michelia alba tree, please email to me.