Poisonous flowers

Loads of plants in the garden are poisonous! but I take the view (as indeed I myself was brought up) that education is the best approach with children. Banning poisonous plants from the garden wouldn't help my children when they visit other people, or are out in the countryside, so it started off, for me, when very young by my Mother telling me I had to wash my hands when we came in from picking Aconites.

Most poisonous plants will give upset stomach, rather than more serious complications, unless amounts ingested are large (Apple pips contain cyanide and will kill you - but the quantity you would have to eat would make it a deliberate act, rather than an accident - as a kid I worried more about the apple pips germinating and growing inside me, than the fact that they might be poisonous!), add to that many/most? poisonous plants taste bitter/foul, so generally children or animals will spit them out, rather than eat more.

I have this quite striking brugmansia plant, which produces lots of flowers every year.

Their fragrance is pleasant but strong enough to knock you off your feet, so it spends time outdoors as well as in. Woe betide any animal or human who nibbled on the leaves or seeds: it can cause anything from a headache to violent death apparently

There's a thread started by TwoSheds on the subject of poisonous plants (which I can't find now - it was along the lines of an RHS wallchart which listed them?) - it turns out that almost anything is poisonous if you eat enough of it. But common sense is the order of the day, I think.

PS You've combed the grass and sieved the soil??

Edit - Hmm - can't find the list now. Anyone else remember it??

I agree you have to teach children to have caution around plants. My kids would never have had a chance to play outside if I'd had to sieve the soil.
I remember running thru bindii's when I was a kid! I used to be so jealous of those kids whose feet were so hard that the bindi's or joey's never stuck in their feet. But it taught me to a) wear some sort of foot covering or learn how to pick them out. And it taught my brothers to look out for patches of bindii's so they didn't have to waste time taking the sobbing baby sister home to mum.

I did remove a pot plant (non flowering) after my friend said she thought it might be one called Dumb cane, as it causes you to lose the control of muscles - so kids will play with it and if they get the juice on them, and then touch their mouths they can't use their mouth properly.

But think about things like roses - beautiful, but careful! They have thorns, this is how we pick up roses. I wouldn't plant a rose bush near a walkway for anyone to constantly get scratched with, but I'd put it somewhere where you could see it, and teach them to not run in that corner.

I like the idea of kids being able to play in a garden, an a book I once read about kids gardens said about how you can make snap dragon flowers talk, so I grew them for that reason. It also talked about how irresistible agapanthas flowers are on those long sword like stalks, and how you can have the best fights with them....and I have to restrain myself everytime I see one these days

So I'd put some of the plants in that you wanted. But depending on age of kids (and most very little ones are constantly supervised outside anyway) I'd add a few interesting and maybe a bit scratchy plants out the back as well. That way they learn garden sense.

Buttercups are poisonous but we all played with them as kids, holding them under our chins to see whether we liked butter.
Children have to learn not to eat unknown plants and not to lick their fingers after handling them. Having said that, I wouldn't grow henbane and hemlock

I've foxgloves, hellibores, etc as well as various edible flowers too (and more to grow). I agree it's education, and when they're too young to understand you need to be out there with them at all times if there's hazards in the garden.

I've a 2 year old that seriously, does not stop eating. She always has something in her mouth - and if she isn't eating, she's pretending to (seriously, if you saw her without a top on, you'd wonder how she balances, her stomach is twice the size of her backside !).

I've a 4 year old that knows what she can and can't eat, but will always ask anyway - so totally agree that it's down to education..

If you're going to mix and match some flowers and veg, do the edibles together, so there's no chance of them picking something harmful.

"Fruit Berries" on Potato plants are poisonous though ... Minefield!

...and rhubarb leaves, I think?

Strip the flowers


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Which will increase the crop too. Discuss

how did you grow the brugmansia? Was it hard, it looks a bit like the angels trumpets I like. Is it a outdoor plant?

funny enough I have foxgloves to which I forgot was poisonous so they will have to go out the front to.

Out Eleanor is 1 year and our Florence is 4 I also have a son who is 10 but he hates coming outside and think he has the common sense not to put anything in his mouth, the 2 girls eat and eat and eat honestly they eat more than me and the bf! Doesn't matter what it is they will eat it! Our flo is usually good with asking if she can eat it but its what she shoves in the babies mouth that worries me, also what nora picks up to. They only ever go out in the garden if they are with someone and thats usually when we are working in the garden but Im sure most of you have had kids and you cant watch them every second

I was thinking about the buttercups that veggie chicken mentioned and although there is 100's out side of my garden on the banks, fields etc I don't think I've seen one in the garden which is a shame as I quite like em.

Does anyone know of any other pink and purple flowers I might be able to add to the front yard?

Thanks guys
Jen x

I cast my children onto our 100 acre farm and looked to the heavens saying "Darwin do your stuff"

Risk is part of life, a few minor injuries is the quickest learning tool there is.

LOL Bill, had a sleepover b'day party here when the girl was 9. About 10 little girls staying, told to bring jeans and closed in shoes due to snakes.
What did they do? Run around in bare feet...till someone stepped in thistles then they all put their shoes on and I was happy.