LIme sulfur is rather hazardous in the undiluted form but not once diluted. It is however bad for your sprayer to leave it in the sprayer - gunks up the little parts with crystals. You should always cover your skin and especially your face when spraying anything. Anything. Then change your clothes and take a shower with any kind of spray other than soap or oil. Lime sulfur is used to wash dogs to kill mites so how hazardous can it be?? all these dogs would be dropping dead. My dog groomer DH uses no gloves when he does so, not my recommendation but he's done it for years with no apparent ill effects. There could be subtle damage but obviously nothing severe, nothing I'd lose sleep over if I only used it occasionally in the garden, with gloves and face mask! Which is what I do. Do not dump undiluted pesticides down the sink. Professionals discard their unwanted pesticides by diluting and spraying them. you could also wait for your local trash handlers to have a Hazardous Materials collection day, which are organized specifically for things like pesticides and paint and batteries so they don't end up in the landfill or the sewage treatment plant or the local surface waters. But I think you're over reacting. I am very cautious with pesticides but I routinely use lime sulfur and I don't put the dogs in when I do. But I do wear gloves and rain gear and rubber boots and a face mask! and shower afterwards. I also prefer copper sulfate for peach leaf curl but lime sulfur is the dormant spray of choice for roses, and I use it in more dilute form during the growing season for blackspot. I consider it much less hazardous than Funginex or Daconil! As for the labelling differences between here and Oz - probably due to differing legal requirements. There are different kinds of toxicity. Environmental versus applicator, as you have noticed. Also concentrates differ in toxicity from diluted sprays. And different nontarget organisms will be affected differently by the same chemical. And something that might be known to cause immediate and irreversible eye damage in concentrate form might not be hazardous when diluted spray mists the skin. That's why the labels go into so much detail. And when they're talking about flaggers and mixers/loaders, they're talking about people who spend a 40 hr work week in close contact with pesticides, not the home gardener with brief contact on an occasional basis.

I would leave them alone until there is no more possible threats of frost, so like in April maybe. Reason is that even thought that dying foliage is ugly, it will protect the rest of the plant and root from more damage in future frosts. It's only early January and we could have several more frosts until spring. If you cut it now, what's left could be damaged again, even maybe down to the roots. So I'd just leave it for now, and cut it back in April. But do water it if we don't get any rain for 2-3 weeks. A well watered plant handles frosts better than a dry one.

Thanks Su! I will let you know how the streps do. AND I am really antsy to start some of my mini trailers and micro mini leaves! There are some that could be started. But first I want to make sure I have the right stuff for them. I am thinking a little raspberry container cause it has a lid. The lid and the bottom have slashes in them for great ventilation. Oh I have never had a micro mini and the smaller something is the more it fascinates me!!! Rosie

I have an Amana bottom freezer drawer refrigerator (ice maker in the drawer not the outside door). Opening one door gives me a view of the whole contents, not just half were you have to open both doors anyway as the French door models are designed. Although, my DS and DIL have a 4 door French with the clear view little door for bottles on one side and a ice and water dispenser on the other door front I didn't like it, seldom used the dispensers and had to open all 3 doors to find something. I suppose if it is your refrigerator you'd remember where stuff was. However, the biggest drawback was that to open the full bottom crisper you had to open both doors wide to pull it out. I use my crisper's a lot and that would be a negative in my kitchen. OTOH Side by side refrigerator/freezers greatly reduce the available space in both. I couldn't slide in a cookie sheet to chill in the narrow freezer of my previous SXS, and being deeper than wide the refrigerator part meant everything was in the way back. I am much happier with my bottom freezer refrigerator with adjustable shelves that pull out to see the way back and can configure the shelves however suits me (example was defrosting a big turkey and still have all the other shelves adjusted for the other stuff). I also have an upright freezer in my kitchen which is wonderful because a bottom freezer has limited space, as does the SXS freezer's compartment. Out in my canning/baking kitchen I have a large deep freezer, and two refrigerator-only units. To do my real kitchen over I'd have an upright freezer and a refrigerator-only unit, maybe a small ice maker on one side and a wine cooler too. But, then I'd have to build a bigger house.....