Lovely plants are popping up all over our garden. Spring flowers and plants are some of my favorite. Here are some that grow in our garden and that I love making bouquets with…but that can be quite wicked! {There it goes again…..I’m singing that broadway song…..}

Hyacinths cause a terrible itch if their bulbs are handled with bare hands. And the sap can irritate your skin. In the flower industry it is called ‘Hyacinth Itch’.

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Sweet Peas smell incredible…but all parts of the plant and seeds are poisonous. The most poison is found in young shoots and the seed pods. They can bring on paralysis, muscle weakness, and tremors. {That’s not a very sweet pea!}

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Tulip bulbs also bring on some bad stuff. Even the dust can cause respiratory problems. Florists that work with tulips often can experience swollen fingers, rashes, and cracks in their skin.

One of my mother’s friends was a young girl in Holland during the Holocaust. Her parents were taken to a concentration camp…but before they were taken they taught her how to peel away all the toxic parts of the tulip bulb and eat it. {If you do not know what you are doing this is quite hazardous!} She hid in a hiding spot under the stove and lived on tulip bulbs until she was found by family that came from another country and took her away to safety.

Morning Glories are a part of the psychedelic plant category. The seeds eaten in large quantities cause trips similar to LSD. They are popular with teenagers who chew the seeds or brew a tea with them. Law enforcement has noted that garden centers sell moonflower seeds to teenagers thinking how wonderful it is that they are going to start a garden…unaware of the intentions. Many teens are hospitalized each year with dangerously high heart rates and frightening hallucinations.

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Lily of Valley can cause heart failure in high doses…in mild cases it causes nausea and headaches. The berries are also toxic.

I think what we are learning from Wicked Wednesday is this: don’t go around chewing the plants in your garden. Just enjoy their beauty.

Wicked Plant Owner~

daune

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It’s true. So often wicked things come in beautiful packages. Why is that? I think wicked things should all be green with warts. But…that is not the case…….

The Poppy is probably the only schedule II narcotic that you can order from a garden catalog, get at your local nursery…and include in a lovely flower arrangement in your home.

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A schedule II narcotic is one that is categorized as having a high potential for abuse, but can still be prescribed. Only the seeds of this flower are legal to possess. In fact, we add them to all kinds of wonderful things in our kitchens….Poppy Seed Muffins, Poppy Seed Bread, etc.

When freshly harvested seedpods are scored with a knife…a milky substance comes out. That milky substance contains morphine, codeine, and several other opiates that are used as very powerful painkillers. {I better not see any of you licking your poppy seedpods! I’ll be watching….}

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It is widely grown in the Middle East. It is also mentioned in Homer….it’s called nepenthe, and Helen of Troy used it to forget all her troubles. Hippocrates lists it as a painkiller……and it has been used recreationally since the Middle Ages.

The Bayer company introduced the most popular drug that has come from the poppy: heroin. They sold it as cough syrup for children and adults….it was sold for about 10 years until it became known widely as being used recreationally; and so they took it off the market. Ha! By 1923 is was banned altogether.

Afghanistan produces 90% of the world’s opium. {I bet they have huge, lovely fields of flowers…..}

It would take about 10,000 poppy flowers to supply the average heroin user for one year.

It is estimated that there are over 9 million heroin users world-wide.

Yikes. I just think they’re pretty and like the seeds on my kaisers. I really like using the seedpods, too….I’ll just make sure they are dry before harvesting them…and NOT score them with a knife. OK? OK.

I mean it…those of you with lovely cottage gardens full of poppies…I’m keeping my eye on you. If you start acting loopy….I’m calling for reinforcements.

daune

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