Last month I went to TX for a week to visit some friends. I hired a pet sitter to take care of my cat and my plants. Last summer she had taken care of kitty and my tomato HEB's for a few days.
I'm so mad! I told her to water the AV *once* but she must have drowned it! I had to keep it away from water for two weeks before it dried out! It had been blooming but the flowers all died and the foliage wilted. It's finally starting to make a comeback and is blooming again.
Needless to say I'm never hiring that pet sitter again! I knew you all would understand. Thanks for listening!
Deirdre
Need to vent somewhere
that happens, & it sure is so sad & sometimes we wind up losing some plants.but what cam you do? they think they are helping.go figure.
bonnie
I can only imagine how frustrating that can be. I know how upset I was this year when I lost all my AVs, but at least it was on my shoulders. Sure am glad it's coming back out.
ladies you are making me very nervous. I have plantsitter for the next 3 weeks yet in Fl. my Episcia's were beautiful but haad to bring them inside.....also all my plantlets i made from AV members gifted leaves....NERvous I am HD
All I can do is recommend you give the pet sitter very specific, written instructions. I did that for my cat but not for my AVs. Now I know better!
It's easy to hire a plant murderer when you go away and a difficult task to find someone who knows what they're doing. Anytime I leave Florida, for a week, and come back there are always some dead plants outside. The frustrating part is oftentimes it's a plant that looked perfectly healthy when I left. My African Violets were basically flooded/overwatered a month ago when I went away. They're beginning to look a little better but it takes a long time to correct them. Part of it is my mistake. She had tended to underwater things in the past, so I had been making it a point to have her water more thoroughly. Even if she over waters here in Florida its usually not a problem. Things dry up relatively fast. The problem is that when you apply that concept to plants that like to be on the dry side.....you have a problem. Sometimes you have to make it easier for them. From now on all my potted plants that like to be a bit dry will be bunched together. That means the begonias, geraniums and african violets will all be on the same table and hopefully all be watered the same (lightly). You can't move in the ground plants that like to be dry, but you can point them out or label them. It could be as simple as putting a garden stake with a red ribbon attached to it by those plants. LOL The color red means "stop". Hopefully they'll remember that means to "cool it on the water". Remember that most people just want to get the watering done since they're not their own plants. You can't expect them to remember everything you tell them, but you can be creative in hopes of seeing healthy looking plants when you come back.
Jon
Well said Jon.We all need to remember most plants will recover from (slight) under-watering,but it is so much more difficult and sometimes impossible to save an over-watered plant.
Lynn
well, grouped everything together and left the blinds in the position that I use in the PM 3 more weeks to go. Left bought water as well. Let you all know what happened. Helene