But first, I MUST ask for help. Some of you have noticed that my COMMENTS section is not displaying anymore. My settings are seemingly set properly, and I’ve tried resetting my widget default as blogger help suggested, but still there’s no success. Can anyone help me?! If so, please contact me via Blotanical.com. Thanks soooo much in advance!!
So on to gardening…as my previous post stated, I found out that my lovely Oleander is reportedly the deadliest plant in the world. Horrified by the potential risk, the shrub was extracted. It didn’t come easily, though. We actually used the Jeep to pull out one of the stumps! Of course I was yelling at everyone to wear protective clothing and gloves, and to beware of the nasty white sap oozing out, and not to make eye contact with the roots that might cause certain death! No, there was no lack of drama at my house!!!
The fun of it was that my son took complete joy in the fact that he was allowed to join in the demolition. After all, he’s heard, “Stay out of my plants!” since he was born!!
After properly disposing of the highly poisonous carnage in our neighbors yard (the ones we don’t like)…..JUST KIDDING!!!!!! We replaced the deadly ornamental with a less showy but still pretty arborvitae evergreen.
At least I won’t be picking off those nasty caterpillars anymore!
I took advantage of the sunny warm day to plant some other foliage such as this Crinum Lily I found in the garbage last week (with roots, so of course I had to save it!).
It's blooms will look like this...
I also planted a handful of lilies that I obtained from the same garbage pile. I have no idea what type they are, but I’ll find out soon enough.
I used the grass I cleared for the lilies to replace the burned grass we’d sacrificed for the benefits of the fire pit a few weekends ago.
I also planted some various elephant ears and philodendron that I’d collected from a friend of mine.
AND I replaced my grape vines with this lovely passion vine. The Muscadine grape vines have lost their luster for me…the passion vine is prettier! Does that make me shallow?!
23 comments:
WOO HOO!!! My comments are back! Thank you, everyone for being patient and for taking the time to leave comments on my Blotanical Plot!
Oleanders are only deadly if you eat them. There was a family about 12 years ago who went to a beach and used oleander branches to roast hot dogs. They didn't die, but they were very, very sick. I have a lucky nut tree (thevetia peruviana) that is related to the oleander. I also have brugmansias and datura, just as deadly. Dumbcane is deadly, as are the leaves and roots of your elephant ear, but... ONLY IF YOU EAT THEM. If you have small kids, I'd say yeah, get rid of all poisonous plants, but if you did that, you would have a very boring yard.
I have the smaller pink crinums and the pink/white striped flowered large one. I got mine for free from someone's trash too.
Wow! I need to find some good trash! :) Kimberly thank you for your praising comments about my garden. Lots of exclamations points and caps! But, actually, I think the garden looks better in a picture which captures a just right moment and scene. I love your blog and admire the variety of plants you grow. Gloria
Hello Kimberly - your post reminds me of a time at work when we published some info on poisonous plants in our newsletter for families. I had one Mum ring up half frantic and half joking saying that she was going to have to pull out her whole garden! I hope it doesn't come to that for you :)
Dear Kimberly, You really do seem to have made a very thorough job of getting rid of the Oleander and have clearly been busy replanting. I am so pleased that your 'Comments' are now working once more. Blogger is doing some strange things with my computer too.
Hi Kimberly! Thank you for sharing your knowledge of plants and flowers. I will visit often!
Well let's try out your comment thingey, it seems to be working! Good going on the Oleander extraction. We lived in southern Cal from 1985-88 and had a fence line of Oleanders. We loved how pretty the flowers were, having never seen them before, but when our neighbors told us to beware of the leaves, etc, with four young kids, we were horrified. We didn't take them out then, but should have. I think the next owners bulldozed the lot of them. Your passion vine flowers is exquisite!
Frances
Your oleander was beautiful, but I'm sure you can rest easier with children in your yard. Keeping up with those polka-dot moth caterpillars is pretty time consuming as well. Burning the branches of oleander produces a toxic smoke as well as eating it.
I'm definitely going to cruise my 'hood on yard waste day starting this week! Great finds.
Glad your comments are back.
Yay! Congrats on fixing the comments! A big congrats on evicting the Oleander too! They're everywhere in California. For years I called it the 'freeway plant', as it seemed to be planted along every major highway in CA! Hate the stuff. You joke about putting it in your neighbor's yard, but people have done that innocently with dire consequences. One case I know of, a chap was trimming his oleander, and thought the cows in the next field might like it. Half a dozen of his neighbor's cows died as a result. Nasty stuff.
The lily will be lovely in full bloom, and your arborvitae is gorgeous too. Could send a little sunshine this way? We're getting awfully soggy out here.
Glad to see your comments are back! Oh, how I hate the oleander and its awful caterpillars, and yet I have planted it in every Florida garden I've had. It's those perfect specimens found in shopping center parking lots and street medians that get me every time. I always convince myself the caterpillars won't find my new garden this time.
Anyway, I do think I would pull mine out at this very moment if they weren't so huge. I'm afraid your illustrations of the removal efforts are not encouraging to me!
How lucky for your son that he has never had to garden with you. I passed on to my children a hatred of gardening, for they learned at a very young age how to trim, chop, remove grass, plant, and pull weeds. Grumbles and complaints the whole while. Surprise, surprise, though, my oldest son has jumped head-first into gardening on the property he purchsed last summer. I guess he learned that the hard work had a payoff.
Kimberly: Gald that you got your comments back! Lucky you can find those plants in the trash! The second lily type of plant you found from the trash looks like "Agapanthus africanus" to me. Good rescue! Your Orleander was beautiful, sorry it had to be pulled out...
Your garden is truly tropical.. going through every plants is like visiting a friend's garden near here. Oleander is immensely beautiful..., that reminds me about a friend in his younger days like to say this "Her beauty is killing...". And that suits Oleander perfectly well... ~bangchik
I've got some poisonous plants in the garden like aconitum,daphne and laburnum - I was brought up around them and my kids have too but one plant I never put in the garden was the Oleander because of its toxicity - my friend used to live in Zimbabwe and she had a fabulous one.
Glad you got your comments back again - it can be so stressful when things go wrong in blogger - at least you knew your comments were not working - it took me a whole day and someone contacting me by email to tell me that mine were not working!
Hi Kimberly - thought I'd try and leave you a comment seeing as you're having problems... lovely posting and amazing how different the plants are in your part of the world - many of these wouldn't survive the harsh weather we have ... nice sunny day today though... take care Miranda
I had no idea Oleander was so poisonous. We've planted most of our garden and I've tried to pay attention to how toxic plants are. When you have kids it's better to be on the safe side.
I love your new Passion vine! Lucky you to have found all the lilies too.
Kimberly,
I noticed that I couldn't post a comment on some of your posts. I thought it was just me being computer challenged. Great job on the plant save from someones trash. Nothing better than free plants to enjoy. If you research a lot I have noticed lots of common plants are poisonous that you wouldn't consider normally.Like Tomato leafs and vines for one.
I think I noticed that I couldn't leave a comment the other day...I thought it was just me lol!
I tried to grow an oleander a couple of years ago. I don't have kids or pets, and I think they're so pretty. It did terrible, while everyone else's in the area looks awesome. I think it wasn't close enough to my house...my yard is very windy, and I think the cold winter wind did it in. I'm afraid to try again...
Thanks for following "The Beer Garden" blog Kimberly....I enjoy your blog and I'm anxious to read more!....weird thing is that just this morning on "Stumbled Upon" I came across the ten most deadly plants and oleander was near the top of the list. Glad you found out and got rid of it.
Glad to see you got the comments thing worked out. Looks like you found some nice plants in the garbage. You've been quite busy.
You know, I have known for a long time that oleander was poisonous, but I had no idea it was soo poisonous. They are everywhere in Charleston and the surrounding area.
How sad that something so beautiful can be so toxic but of course with children you had to remove it. I have not been here for some time... or any blogs hardly so never knew about your comments not working... hopefully all will work as it should from now on out! ;>)
I've had people make the same comment to me via Blotanical. Like you I've checked all settings etc. and can't find anything wrong.
Had to giggle, reading that you had to hitch the truck to get the oleanders out. I just dug up one and "extracted" another. I say extracted because I was an idiot and apparently planted it right over where the phone line comes in. So I had to carefully feel around and cut all the roots (but not the phone line) until I could get it out of the ground.
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