I've mentioned that we have lived in a condo community for three years now. The first spring, skip a year and then this spring... just last week, maintenance hires a service to power wash all the buildings. I remembered from the last time that due to the mold down here in the south, that water contains bleach. Of course these men swore up and down to me that it wouldn't hurt my plants. Wrong......
Now go back with me about 5 years ago...we lived in our house in Michigan that had a back deck with a planter at one end. I had tried to grow Moonflowers up a trellis for two or three years to no avail. Morning glories would grow, but not the Moonflowers...(basically the same thing but they only bloom in white and bloom at night) Add to this equation that Terry is a golfer.... (important information to know a little later)
I had finally gotten those Moonflowers to grow about 3 feet up that trellis when, one day, I noticed a bucket of water sitting on the deck. I thought it was rain water and poured it on the Moonflowers. Should be good for them shouldn't it? No..... within 2 days those things were brown, shriveled and dieing. I went to work just ranting about Terry bleaching his balls and leaving the water sitting so that was what I had poured on my plants. Darn him and his bleached balls!
So this year I thought I would try the Moonflowers again. The seeds are about as big as a pea so I soaked them overnight and planted them and threw in some red Morning Glories in hopes of a red and white blooming trellis. The Moonflowers grew to be about 4 inches tall. I was thrilled.
So now comes power wash day. They scrubbed sidewalks and the buildings.
I carried my and planters baskets away from the porch. I was ready......but I forgot my poor things that were planted in the ground. Of course the water would run off and would spray over them. The cannas are turning brown and the little plants by the planter are almost all gone.
My poor geranium was about 10 feet from the porch but I believe it got the blow back from the mist.
I keep pulling off the dead leaves. I 'm hoping it will recover but I have my doubts.
Excuse me while I pout. Enough with the whine. Bring on the wine.
9 comments:
I think they should reimburse you! And take better care of how they do it! I'm pouting with you. Bring on the wine. sandie
Well that stinks!
"bleached balls". LOL!!
Bleach Ball water or any kind of bleach water will kill anything except maybe weeds. Your poor Geranium it is so full of buds..it may come back..give it some time. Try the Moonflowers again..rub the seeds on sand paper just enough to get through the seed coat and then soak overnight..they grow really fast..you still have time:)
Oh my, how awful! I'm so sorry that your plants were affected by the bleach.
There's some kind of plant-safe bleach designed for mold/mildew on exterior walls. We had to use some on our previous house on the north wall ... my hubby was careful to not use too much of it, and my plants weren't affected at all.
"Bleached balls"...now that's funny! I didn't realize that bleach water would harm plants, perhaps that's what happened to some of mine in the past...
I'm so sorry, but when I got to the point of your husband bleaching his balls, I just howled.
Why in the world didn't they just admit the water would hurt your plants and give you the chance to protect them? Geeze!
Hope they perk back up again.
That's too bad, after all your hard work growing those plants.
Hmmmph! You got to put up some signs out front that say, "No lave el poder en cualquier lugar cerca de las flores!"
You would think they would be careful to protect the landscaping as they are power washing. Hoping the flowers come back better than ever.
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