One of two reasons come to mind. One, they are using the rocks to keep the fronds more upright rather than fanning out sideways. I have seen this before and it's a decent tactic.

Or they were using large rocks to keep a kitty from digging in the pot.

But my guess is the first, to keep the fronds vertical.

You can take them out and see what happens. You can always put them back right?

,,,or the rocks could have been used as counterweight...whatever the reason, you can do as popmama said. I often use rocks to support newly repotted plants.

maybe they collected rocks ....

i also wondered if the plant got to top heavy ... and was tipping over .. so they added some weight to the pot ...

kitty.. sure.. why not.. they are basically evil incarnate .. lol .. excedpt when they want food ... then theyre all lovey dovey ... lol

replant properly.. in a pot that drains properly.. with fresh new proper media ... note repeated key word ... a proper sized pot wont need rocks in it .. and actually.. this one looks like a plastic garbage can .. does it have drain holes???

we cant see how big it is .. nor how much space you have for it.. but it looks kind of large ... i might use it as a mother plant to propagate some fresh new young ... read that 'smaller plants' .. and then get rid of the big old monster ... if need be ..

just for the heck of it.. give us a pic of the whole plant ...

ken

It’s a pretty big one - the top of the pot measures 10 inches. Attaching some photos for reference. @ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

It's pretty! Score!

Needs water.

@iochroma this is one thing ive been struggling with - i just watered it recently and some of the leaves had started to yellow after. what do you recommend as a good watering schedule?

The wrinkled bases of the stems indicate it needs a good soaking.

Frequency of watering will depend on the environmental conditions and the soil mix.