Adult accordingly purchases container for plant (8)
I believe the answer is:
acanthus
'plant' is the definition.
(acanthus is a kind of plant)
'adult accordingly purchases container' is the wordplay.
'adult' becomes 'a'.
'accordingly' becomes 'thus' (I've seen this in other clues).
'purchases' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'container' becomes 'can' (can is a kind of container).
'a'+'thus'='athus'
'athus' placed around 'can' is 'ACANTHUS'.
'for' is the link.
(Other definitions for acanthus that I've seen before include "Leaf, sometimes carved on furniture" , "Ridicule" , "Bush?" , "Leaves carved on a Corinthian column" , "Growth" .)