I believe so, it is staying quite warm in our area. That's what I will try for if the ground is workable but if not, any special ways to store the bulbs till the ground is workable in early spring? Thanks so much! ~michael

The best place to "store" this mulch this winter is on your garden as the mulch you plant to put down next spring. There is no good reason to wait until spring to mulch and there is no good reason to remove that mulch next spring. Some people will tell you that you should not put mulches on your garden in the fall since that may give insect pests someplace to hide and over winter, but that also gives beneficial insects the same chance so those beneficial insects are there in the spring ready to find the pests. In addition that mulch may help keep your soil warmer longer so the soil bacteria will start to digest that mulch material and work it into your soil.

Idaho--I don't think you'll have much luck in lowering the pH by spreading the sulfur on the surface. Soil sulfur works best when it's incorporated into the soil. If I were you, I would concentrate my efforts on individual plants that are chlorotic (yellow leaves and usually green veins). Drill holes with a bulb augur around the drip line and add some sulfur to within a few inches of the surface, then cover with soil. Your best bet for larger areas is to try to increase the amount of organic matter in the soil. The organic matter will help bring the pH closer to neutral and will also have a buffering effect. Alkaline soils are common in the intermountain west, and it's usually a losing battle to try to significantly lower the pH. Somebody on the Rocky Mountain Gardening forum used to say that it is much easier to try to grow plants that are adapted to our soil than to try to adapt our soil to the plants we're trying to grow. By the way, adding iron isn't likely to help much. Your soil probably has plenty of iron, but it's in a form that can't be used by the plants. With a pH that high, you need to use EDDHA chelated iron. EDTA chelated iron is more commonly available and also much less expensive, but isn't likely to be much help. You can also use a foliar spray, but that is short lived and can cause leaf burning. It's almost guaranteed to burn if the daytime highs are above 80.

Hey John, Thanks for that info and I think I may have read something similiar before. Aonther article I read on the internet was saying that storing cuttings in non tropical areas is diffrent than storing them in areas like zone 8 to the tropicas. I read that there dormancy time was less in those area. My friend Mimi in Hawaii had said that Plumeria are in bloom there constantly so there dormancy time there is considerably shorter than like my plumeria. I live in western NY officially zone 6 I believe. I always consider us to live in a micro climate zone 7 for parts of the year because Lake Erie is around 10 mintues away and for the most part it keeps us considerably warmer than the rest of the area. Even at that, my plumeria come indoors around mid to late September, but they will go out for the occasional warm weekend if I can get temps in the 60's for the day and even 50's at night. I know the fifties sound cold but my Dwarf Singapore Pink maintained both of it's two inflos. Both of my I.R. plumeria would also have kept them if I would have given them proper lighting. All my other plumeria are growing under a 600 watt HPS light. I initially let them go dormant for a couple weeks but according to the article, it stated that norther n growers should try to keep first year cuttings going to avoid root rot. All of my plumeria are continuing to grow. I only have my Dwarf singapore pink with the inflos but I also got a 'Penang Peach' that I bought a few weeks ago. It came with a new inflo and loaded with buds and actually right now it has bloomed. I had lost around 4 leaves but nothing else has dropped and even the second bud that opened up around the 3rd day I got it is even still there! Do you think that if they are first year cuttigns this is a good way to grow them? How long do yours go dormant? Andrew