aggierose, your question re pot size is not dumb at all- I wondered that for years myself! The answers I came across indicate that unless your potting mixture (for young plants) is very light, nutritious, and free-draining, the closed environment of a pot holds too much moisture and too much air remains driven from the soil for too long. True, open ground CAN be so saturated (as after a heavy rainfall) there is no oxygen (especially in clay soils) in the soil, but usually water moves through the soil fast enough that it isn't a problem. Roots stop growing when there is no oxygen, and do so temporarily after a heavy rainfall. So your babies may be getting swamped (this can happen in heavy soil if you just amend a hole with lighter soils - the hole ends up being a sump that traps water). Also, if they are recently potted they have lost a lot of tiny feeder roots - so they need to replace those, plus you will have leaf yellowing and drop as the plant give up leaves it can't support right now, until the feeder roots re-grow. Which won't happen if the soil is heavy and oxygen -less. Without being there it is hard to say, I would be hesitant to tell you to repot again into a smaller pot and lighter mixture. If the plants re in danger of rotting outright you will have to, gently. Do the canes/stems still look good? Lastly I am still suspicious of your soil mixture - for me I have very, very rarely purchased ANY soil that I didn't need to amend (preferred) and a LOT of what I see has all kinds of junk in it - long-term fertilizers, wetting agents - it's getting harder and harder just to find good soil that I can lighten up with Perlite, sand, etc. That includes so-called African violet and cactus mixtures. For my own experience it is better to mix your own! I might try more than 2-3 hours of sun, at least more partial sun if your heat is strong. And do not fertilize at all until the babies are really growing!!! 5-inch tall plants need small pots with a light, free-draining mixture - you might try re-potting to a smaller pot and putting the small pots into the big pot (double-potting). Pack the space between the pots with insulation material (I've used newspaper, mulch, packing peanuts, even old dirt!)

My tree IS budding!!!! You guys were right....just be patient! Funny thing is...I saw the first green buds yesterday which was St. Patrick's Day! Guess my tree was waiting to dress up for the holiday. Thanks to you all for your comments and advice. Just to let you know, I did water it during the winter and I fertilized it two weeks ago, then gave it a deep watering a few days ago. All is good now and thanks for your help! To answer your question, Greenlrry, my tree is an Ulmus parvifolia and it will be beautiful again this summer! :-)

You might want to post this over on the conversation side of the brug forum. Hopefully one of the vets can help you out. later...April

I'll try to get some pictures up tomorrow, see I originally thought it was the cold, and still kinda do. However, it is supposed to be hardy to zones 9A and up, in which I'm on the line of 9A and 9B climates. I've found them growing good in people's yards and even a few that are wild on Galveston Island, TX. I have two plants, so I'll do a test run of cutting off the top on the weaker one. Just terrified I'll lose them. I'll hopefully be moving to the Hollywood region of Florida in a year or two so I'm trying to stock up on tropicals. 3 kinds of guava, 2 kinds of mango, tamarind, royal poinciana, rainbow eucalyptus, jamaican hibiscus, jackfruit trees, several different breeds of papayas, so far at 7 different species of fruiting Passiflora (and still collecting those), 2 kinds of grapes, soursop, and many more. Anyways, thank you for your advice.