Many people will suggest removing the plants that grew there this year taking nutrients from your soil. These, now dead, plants can be composted, extra work, or can be left in place and covered with the paper and leaves to put those nutrients back into the soil they grew in. The shredded leaf mulches I put down in the fall usually are digested by August and the soil really needs more mulch, and some years I have some to put down while others I don't. If I do have mulch material I will add it but if I don't I don't get overly concerned about it. Shredded leaves will be digested by the soil bacteria sooner then whole leaves would, depending on the tree species, which means the whole leaf mulch will last longer but will not feed the soil as soon and whole leaves are known to keep some plants from growing if they cover them. I add compost to the mulch and do not concern myself with "fertilizer" since the compost and leaf mulches keep the soil in my garden well supplied with necessary nutrients, as periodic soil tests have shown.

Ok, here is what I have: Red hot poker (just starting to sprout) giant coneflower (several containers--no sprouts--started Jan 10th) day lilly yellow esperanza gaillardia (also several containers--no signs) tickseed-coreopsis (started to sprout) butterfly bush-buddelia (or however it is spelled--sprouted a while ago, but slow growing) foxglove--sprouting columbine--no signs shasta daisy--my first sprouts chinese lanterns--starting to sprout red flower yucca--nothing lantana--nothing canna lily--have 2 sprouts balloon flower--have sprouts rose of sharon--nothing desert willow--tons of sprouts larkspur--tons of sprouts lupine--getting 2nd or 3rd leaf already datura and double white datura--getting some sprouts pomegranate--nothing clerodendron--nothing cleome--nothing starting 2/18: california poppy marigold columbine alyssum canterbury bells. Some of the lasts I know shouldn't have sprouted, I just did them about a week ago. My lupines (the first set) are my biggest and have the most leaves. I'm not generally worried about the seedlings not getting bigger as I know they are probably working on the roots as mentioned earlier (and my philosophy in gardening is: if it is green, it's not dead. Not dead is good. And, all the seedlings are green at the moment.) I have been taking the lids off them during the very warm (up to the high 60's, some 70's) day and putting the lid back on at night (where it gets to the 30 and 40's). I also have them in a container and next to the house in a little cove to hopefully shield them from the winds. For the past several years, we've had very warm February's (or is it februaries?) and then a cold march. I was just wondering if I sowed some of the stuff too early. I have my sprouted's in one spot, so it should be easy to put a blanket over them if I need to.

Lynn, As I understand it you have two main questions. What should you do now with the transplanted citrus to improve their chances of survival and how/when should you transplant the remaining citrus to improve their chances of survival? I would check the small branches on the repotted citrus for life by cutting off a few tips. If the centers still show green your tree has a good chance of survival. If the centers are not green, continue to trim until you see green. If you see no green, the trees are dead. If your trees are alive, do not over water. The roots have probably been damaged to some extent as others have said. Spray the tops with water frequently, but only the tops, or tent them in vented plastic to increase humidity, again as someone else has said. If they are still alive they will probably resprout. As to the second question: others have well addressed soil composition. Another issue is roots drying out. Oklahoma can be very dry and you took about 20 minutes to repot. I think that this is likely to have caused the problem. Repotting in Spring would probably have the advantage of more humid conditions, personally that would not deter me from Fall planting, but I would take extra care, either using water to get soil out of the roots (as described above), or spritzing with a water bottle frequently and covering exposed sections of root that you are not actively working on with plastic. I hope your plants "bounce back". Cath

Yeah that sounds like a good idea Sheila...I never thought of something like that? How do those work exactly? And Seil I didn't plant in cardboard as in 'packaging the Rose came in' I mean I had moving style boxes I broke down and then I wet them down really good to put under mulch along the slope to deter weeds. I made sure to leave about 5" or so around each plant bare with a little mulch. I did however leave the soil on it when I planted, I didn't try to make bareroot? You think that could've caused it? I just want to know how to save these ...also it rained last night...not sure how hard because it ended at least an hour or two before I woke up so when I stuck finger in soil down so deep that I had no finger left! It felt pretty moist all the way down...but idk how much rain feel so idk if that could happen from the rain we just had overnight? And today has been overcast with next to no sun all day..so sun wasn't out to dry it out.