The City of Castlegar says many floral displays in the city have died or are showing signs of distress following an error in watering practices.
The city believes some displays were impacted after being watered by a truck used for dust control. One vehicle is used for both services as a standard practice.
After dust control is complete, the tank is emptied and washed out so it can be used for flower watering. In this case, the city says it appears a concentration of calcium chloride didn’t get flushed from the tank and was transferred to the floral displays during the watering process.
“We are very upset about the impact this has on the beautiful plants throughout the City of Castlegar,” says Chris Hallam, the city’s director of municipal services.
“This is devastating for our extremely dedicated and hard-working Communities in Bloom volunteers who create and nurture these displays each year and for our staff who maintain them. Everyone involved takes a lot of pride in these displays.”
We will lobby the city to provide an alternative option for future use for plant and floral maintenance purposes.
Since the issue was identified, the city says it has been working with Communities in Bloom volunteers to minimize the impact and preserve as many flowers and planters as possible. Some planters, including those in the south end of the city, were not impacted.
The city says its staff are assessing procedures and will make adjustments to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
Communities in Bloom chair Darlene Kalawsky said they are “heartbroken to see such a major loss.”
“It was an unfortunate incident, with close to 85 per cent of plants perishing,” she said.
“Many volunteer hours go into designing and maintaining these displays, and with city support, and they have been recognized as some of the best in the CIB program.”
She noted Castlegar has been involved with Communities in Bloom for nearly 20 years, averaging thousands of volunteer hours annually.
Kalawsky added they will lobby the city for an alternative option for plant and floral maintenance.