Q: OK, lets be up front about this, I did a stupid thing. I have made just about every mistake in the gardeners manual, but I make them only once. I forgot to purge my lawn tractor sprayer of Roundup the last time I had used it. Then I put insecticide in the tank to spray for Japanese beetles in July. Consequently, the first two trees I sprayed got a dose of Roundup, which severely burned the trees.

Now what do I do? The crapemyrtles are still alive but failed to leaf out and bloom properly. Should I give them another year to recover or just replace them?

A: Thank goodness you were honest and told me what happened!

If you’d just sent pictures of the stems and stunted leaves I would have had no idea what’s going on!

I think you just wait and see what happens. If you can be patient and wait until next spring, I sure would like to know what the long term effect is. Send me pictures then as well.

In the future you can clean the sprayer with soapy water or a solution of 1/4 cup of ammonia in a gallon of water.

If you use hand sprayers, buy two and label one “HERBICIDES” and use it strictly for weed killers.