Tiny red buds are a good sign, and if the canes are green, round and healthy looking it is still all right. When the canes go dry, wrinkly sort of, and start go yellow, then it's time to worry. Older canes turn darker, and "barky" and they are still fine. Some years some roses can be very late to sprout, often after a very hard winter, or late spring. Just be patient, and don't give up as long as canes look fine. I never give up on anything until midsummer, I have had last years cuttings I thought where dead, suddenly sprout from the ground in June. Regards

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.)

Have had fig plants in pots wake up as late as mid August. As a note kept just enough water so soil mixture did not completely dry out as when not actively in leaf the water uptake is minimal . Martin

Sometimes the problem for a Plumeria that doesn't bloom is simply a matter of the size of its pot. As far as I know, a mature Plumeria needs a two gallon pot. If your Plumeria seedlings are taller than 50 cm (hmm, that would be about 19 inches or 1,6 ft. in America :) ) and have pots smaller than 2 gallon, a simple transplant to a larger pot may give you a surprise perhaps this very year, 'cause it's not too late to re-pot them now. Also give them fertilizer to encourage new growth. I know of someone in Florida who did just this last year and her 5 year-old never bloomed before Plumie had her first inflo last summer! If this is not the problem, perhaps you don't give them too much sun? Maybe if you give more info on their condition I might be of some help if it's not too late. I wouldn't give up on them, unless you have other grown Plumerias that do bloom. Good luck!