In the Chicago area, you can find 4-lb paper bags (bold yellow and red) of "Hi Yield Soil Sulphur" (in flake form) at garden centers like Sid's, The Growing Place, Planter's Palette, and others for $3-5/bag. It is difficult to know what process was used to produce the elemental sulfur you buy at garden centers. As +om said, there are naturally-occuring deposits of elemental sulfur. In the U.S., significant, fairly pure deposits exist in Louisiana and a couple other states. However, there's a huge amount of elemental sulfur on the market that's produced by treating the hydrogen sulfide gas (chemically "reducing" sulfide to sulfur) that is (1) found in natural gas and crude oil deposits and (2) produced as a waste stream during desulfurization of crude oil in refineries. Hydrogen sulfide is a very toxic gas, and the large quantities produced in natural gas and petroleum operations must be dealt with--it cannot simply be vented to the atmosphere, and the EPA regulates this. There are enormous piles of yellow sulfur (made from hydrogen sulfide) sitting at some of the big natural gas fields in Canada. (Elemental sulfur is often shipped in bulk in the molten form in rail tankers. You can usually tell which tanker cars carry sulfur by the yellow crust around the hatch.) Much, but not all, of the elemental sulfur produced at refineries goes on to nearby processing plants to be turned into sulfuric acid, and then into (water-soluble) mineral sulfates that can be broadcast on fields as agricultural fertilizers. In reading Espoma literture, I have gathered that when they use the term "all natural" with respect to inorganic ingredients (like elemental sulfur, or calcium sulfate), they mean it has been extracted/mined in that form from some place on the earth. But I've never called them to confirm that. The "Hi Yield Soil Sulphur" is marketed by a reseller that I suspect gets sulfur from the cheapest source (which currently is probably one of the hydrogen sulfide sources). As a chemist, and as a citizen who uses both natural gas and refined petroleum products, I consider soil sulfur produced from the treatment of toxic hydrogen sulfide waste streams (generated by the demand for these fossil fuels) to be worthy of use. +om, some "formulations" of elemental sulfur sold in bulk for agricultural use are coated with a surfactant to make the surface of the sulfur pellet/powder/etc. hydrophilic (wettable). For field use, most of the interest in elemental sulfur is as a cheaper source of soluble sulfate fertilizer, rather than as a soil acidifier. Elemental sulfur has a relatively low solubility in water, and in solid form it is hydrophobic. If the sulfur's surface can be made hydrophilic, then that improves the rate at which soil organisms (fungi and certain bacteria) can convert the sulfur to sulfate over the course of a growing season. Does the pelletized form that you buy have surfactants? Can you find out? If it does, all the better as a somewhat faster-acting, slow-release soil acidifier. (The down-side of some surfactants out in the environment is if significant quantities wash into aquatic habitats, where some can be toxic to aquatic animals. This should not be an issue for home gardeners using relatively small amounts of surfactant-coated sulfur for soil acidification. I'd keep it away from beds around ponds, though, to be safe.)

April...I have just read your plea for help with an imposible situation. As you know, I lost a daughter who was bipolar. Her life for many years was a hell that I know I still don't fully realize. We lived more than 100 miles away so weren't involved in her life on a daily basis. Fortunately she never had an addiction to battle along with the disease, but I know that for her husband of more that 20 years, everyday was an "unknown". What I want to tell you is that Terry's father and I gave our son-in-law our blessing the day he came to us and asked us to become more involved with her because he just couldn't take it any more and had to "get out". He assured us that he had no intention of leaving her abruptly. That he wanted to try to make sure that she had a network of family and friends that would be looking out for her before he did anything. He said divorce was not in his plans, because that would leave her without medical insurance. He spent several hours with us that day telling us many things about her that we needed to know if he wasn't in the picture to help in a crisis. That was 2 years before we lost her. They were in marriage counseling for most of that time...not counseling to save the marriage, but to help ready her for his leaving. He was still with her trying to pave the way for her to be on her own the day she died. And we were still supporting him in his decision to leave at some point. Some might think that we were wrong to show compassion for him, but there are times that this "for better or worse, in sickness and in health" stuff cannot and should not be honored. The bottom line April is that you have endured more than enough and your son is the one you must have the most concern for now. You cannot "fix" your husband. He can't fix himself. It is the nature of the illness. Go to counseling and a lawyer. Find out the way to best get out...not only for yourself, but for your husband. He is a danger to you, your son, and himself. Don't sacrifice yourself or your son for something that cannot be fixed.

I never thought about an "official" season beginning any time. I seem to remember rushing to order from Palatine in early September one year (and still getting there too late to get that rose). And it seems to me that Austin rather lags a bit behind others which are taking orders in the fall and early winter (for next spring), with Austin being more toward the early winter. Some place that I do not remember once informed me they don't take orders until after the first of the year. With own root roses growing in a pot (like Roses Unlimited), early ordering isn't as essential since they won't mail out their orders to my region until May 15, even though I keep telling them that all danger of frost has passed by late April. If I want a rose very badly and/or worry that it will get sold out, I begin haunting their online site in September, all fall and early winters if necessary--but then I order just as soon as they open for the coming season. Most years I'd guess I do most of my ordering between Xmas and New Years, with an occasional order being put in later, but I know there are a number of forum posters who already or very shortly will have their order put in. Don't think there are any hard and fast rules--unless I've just missed them somehow. : ( My two orders for next spring were made this year during late Sept. and early Oct. Good luck. Kate

I too think it depends on the variety of rose and your growing conditions. My Lady Alexandra of Kent, I got from DA on its own root. When I received it I put it in a pot for a month or two until I could plant it in the ground. That rose took off and was over 7 feet tall the first year. In comparison, my own root Sister Elizabeth has stayed about a foot tall all year. Depends on the variety. All of my own root roses have done well and I have only lost one due to the excessive heat this last summer. Speakin of heat, I am in So. Cal. visiting my folks for the holidays and it was 88 degrees yesterday and it is supposed to be the same today. What is up with that? Meanwhile, we will be getting our first freezing Temps at home this week. Ugh! Time to cover the citrus. That being said, I do love my own root roses and am happy I won'the lose tem too rootstock again. I am typing from a tablet, so hopefully I don't have too many mistakes on this thing.