- Jul 29, 2018
- 777
- Pool Size
- 15000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
We don't have a landscape forum or one even subtitled landscaping, and this can make pool maintenance easier, more difficult, or an outright nightmare. We had a professional design the landscaping for our home. He also installed the larger items--ornamental trees: Eagleston Holly, crapemyrtles, purple vitex, and the subject of this warning: Southern Wax Myrtle. The landscaping was designed before we had a pool but with a future pool in mind and indeed included in the landscape plan. Note. I've lived in the South most of my 76 years, but before being presented with a landscape plan, I had never heard of wax myrtle--which btw, other than it's "last name", I am aware of no similarity with crapemyrtle. In fairness, the landscape architect did not put crapemyrtles in the backyard, and he himself has a swimming pool. Two wax myrtles on the west side of the pool (the long side) not five feet away. Two more north and east of the pool, 20 and 30 feet.
Wax myrtle was presented as a privacy plant and "evergreen." OK it delivered on the privacy feature. Evergreen, however, apparently has an alternate definition that is "drops leaves all year with a few more in fall and spring and quite a few more when the weather is hot and dry." Wax myrtle leaves are 1-3" long and maybe 3/8" wide. Skinny leaves that make skimmer socks no longer optional, as many will slip right through a regular Pentair skimmer basket and clog the filter pump basket. Where we are in southeast Texas west of Houston, the prevailing wind is out of the south. However from time to time we'll get a norther, so all the leaves that have been pushed north for months suddenly get a blow from the north. A few weeks back a big storm blew--no exaggeration--at least 10,000 leaves into the pool overnight. Luckily I was up before the scheduled filter pump came on. These leaves go to either the skimmers or get waterlogged and sink to the bottom. We've had some hot days recently--98-101 degree highs (with almost matching humidity numbers.) Variable winds. This morning at least 2,000 wax myrtle leaves in the pool.
So there you go. Even though I had never heard of Southern Wax Myrtle before 2017, I'm guessing they're now a common shrub/tree of up to 20 feet tall and/or 20 feet wide in usda zones 7-10. None of the descriptions I've found provide this caution, so I must do it. Do not put Southern Wax Myrtle within 40 feet of a swimming pool.
Wax myrtle was presented as a privacy plant and "evergreen." OK it delivered on the privacy feature. Evergreen, however, apparently has an alternate definition that is "drops leaves all year with a few more in fall and spring and quite a few more when the weather is hot and dry." Wax myrtle leaves are 1-3" long and maybe 3/8" wide. Skinny leaves that make skimmer socks no longer optional, as many will slip right through a regular Pentair skimmer basket and clog the filter pump basket. Where we are in southeast Texas west of Houston, the prevailing wind is out of the south. However from time to time we'll get a norther, so all the leaves that have been pushed north for months suddenly get a blow from the north. A few weeks back a big storm blew--no exaggeration--at least 10,000 leaves into the pool overnight. Luckily I was up before the scheduled filter pump came on. These leaves go to either the skimmers or get waterlogged and sink to the bottom. We've had some hot days recently--98-101 degree highs (with almost matching humidity numbers.) Variable winds. This morning at least 2,000 wax myrtle leaves in the pool.
So there you go. Even though I had never heard of Southern Wax Myrtle before 2017, I'm guessing they're now a common shrub/tree of up to 20 feet tall and/or 20 feet wide in usda zones 7-10. None of the descriptions I've found provide this caution, so I must do it. Do not put Southern Wax Myrtle within 40 feet of a swimming pool.
