Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Saved Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Flip

1 2

AIBU?

to ask my neighbours to remove this plant?

38 replies

AKMD · 25/07/2011 15:43

My neighbours have a huge lilly which has just come into bloom. It's in their back garden right next to the shared path to our garages. Last night I had to go backwards and forwards unpacking the car from a weekend away and afterwards was wheezing so badly that I had to have the maximum 6 puffs of my inhaler (I have asthma) before my breathing was anywhere near udner control. If that hadn't worked, the next step would have been a 999 call for an ambulance and a hospital trip. Fast-forward to today... I've just opened the windows at the back of my house and I'm already wheezing! AIBU to nicely ask my neighbours if they could take the plant inside or get rid of it? I would get them a nice non-killer replacement plant if that would help.

OP posts:

Report

alice15 · 25/07/2011 16:22

I'm a vet; lilies are very toxic to cats. Agree that removing the stamens would help you, but maybe you could use the cat's welfare as a conversation starter?

Report

ExitPursuedByAGryffin · 25/07/2011 16:24

Certainly you ask them to move it - it is only a plant fgs!

(I would be tempted to suggest more direct action towards the roots/bulbs/corms but I would get rightly flamed for that )

Report

SoupDragon · 25/07/2011 16:28

Its in a pot! it's not like you're asking them to chop down someone :) Go for it.
I would be happy to move it if it were mine.

Report

SoupDragon · 25/07/2011 16:29

Chop down something

Bloody autocorrect.

Report

AKMD · 25/07/2011 16:32

I'm absolutely sure it's the lilly. I haven't had an asthma attack in nearly 4 years, have been fine all day at work and when I came home but was wheezing 2 minutes after I had opened the back windows. You can actually smell the lilly inside the house.

:o at SoupDragon's violent ideas!

OP posts:

Report

spiderpig8 · 25/07/2011 16:39

If it's only in a pot fair enough, if it was in the ground i wouldn't ask becasue you could avoid walking to the garage for a week or so couldn't you?

Report

AKMD · 25/07/2011 16:43

spiderpig it isn't just walking to the garage, it is having my windows open (in the summer!) and playing in the garden with DS (no parks nearby).

Durham maybe he is trying to tell me something!

OP posts:

Report

Ephiny · 25/07/2011 16:50

Oh it's in a pot - definitely not unreasonable to ask then. I was imagining they'd have to dig it out and replant, possibly damaging it (though I think you could still at least politely ask in that situation).

Not sure how big their garden is, but maybe they could move it to a different part so at least it's not right outside your windows? The only way is to talk to them and see if you can work something out. If they're nice/reasonable people, I'm sure they'll be willing to cooperate, and won't want to be causing you such problems.

Report

LRDTheFeministDragon · 25/07/2011 16:51

Oh, poor you!

I think if they can move it elsewhere it is not unreasonable to ask and if it were me, I'd move it (I love lilies, but would prefer not to poison my neighbours!).

However, I do think you need to work out as best you can if it'll be ok once moved further away/if you'd object to other plants too. They may feel worried that if they move this and you don't like/react badly to something else, they'll be obliged to move that too. Can you make it clear it's not all flower pollen that's at issue, just lilies? Or is it really any pollen you would react to?

Report

Hassled · 25/07/2011 16:54

My asthmatic DS3 reacts badly to lilies - they're certainly a trigger. Just go and ask. If they say no you need to google lily-poison and then find an upstairs window or somewhere to pour the poison on from.

Report

ViolaTricolor · 25/07/2011 17:00

Lilies make me wheeze terribly even though I don't have asthma, so I'm not surprised they can have this effect on you. Just ask very nicely. I'd be appalled if one of my neighbours was suffering in silence because of a plant.

Report

WhereYouLeftIt · 25/07/2011 17:01

Is it a stargazer lily? They trigger DH's asthma, although other varieties of lilies don't. (And they're my favourite too.)

Report

StayingNearlyHeadlessNicksGirl · 25/07/2011 17:16

Make sure you get a good lungful of the lily pollen so you are wheezing like a grampus, and then go next door and ask your neighbours to move the lilies. It is in a pot, so I can't imagine they'd object anyway, but if they did, the sight of you so ill ought to prick their consciences.