Common garden plants with a very short lived life span are also very common and enjoyable landscaping flowers. By selecting these plants wisely they can add quite a lot to your landscaping efforts and make your garden look very attractive and healthy. Also, by planting them in the correct areas and in the right season they can be even more productive and bloom much more beautifully than many others.
One very common garden plant that can be poisonous when ingested is the popular all year round edible berries such as strawberries and raspberries. The reason they are so enjoyable to eat is because of their bitter taste, although many people who do eat them end up enjoying them much less than they were originally intended. Commonly the berries will contain a substance called prussiate acid which is exactly what makes them toxic. It’s the prussiate acid that can sometimes remain in the berry and be absorbed into the skin, and then ultimately into the body through the digestive tract.
Oleander (Rubia cordifolia) is another common garden plant with this same toxic quality. So common, in fact, that there are actually two different varieties, each containing a slightly different amount of alkaloid content. The standard Oleander is green in color and has prickly branches, whilst the ‘green Oleander’ contains a red / purple color and has prickly branches. Both have poisonous plants in the family which includes Passiflora, so it is advised to keep them out of reach of pets and children.
Flowering shrubs such as the famous Prunella vulgaris are also very hardy and common garden plants, and although a lot of people will still say that they are attractive flowers, it is their ability to thrive even in poor soil that makes them such a popular landscaping plant. The shrub ranges in size from two to five feet tall and will grow well in most areas. It has large, rigid leaves, and blooms in the spring, with yellow / purple flowers. There are many different species, but all of them belong to the genus Prunella.
Of course, one of the more common garden plants is the deadly poison-flower, Phyllanthus. This beautiful, and quite lethal, flower has been used for centuries as a type of deterrent, to warn off intruders or hunters. The flower can be found in both Central and Western Europe and can take the form of a single purple blossom, or in masses of bright purple “hits”. The plant itself is actually quite harmless, with a sweet taste and a slow heartbeat – the exact opposite of its deadly cousins, Solanine and cyanogenic. The name of the plant comes from the Latin word for sweet, which is how it got its name. The poisonous properties come from a class of chemical compounds known as thymol.
Rhododendron is another common garden plant that is toxic. The name comes from the Latin for “rosary flower”, and this beautiful plant blooms in a variety of colors, ranging from white, pink, orange, and red. Most rhododendrons look much like thyme and can be found growing in fields, in the woods, and along the roadsides.
One of the more exotic plants that are poisonous, and yet quite appealing, are the Orchid and Hornwort. Both of these flowers come from the Orchid family, which includes hundreds of species around the world. These flowers are beautiful, and offer wonderful garden plant ideas. The beautiful white flowers, however, do not last for long, and tend to die after a few years.
Other plants that might be poisonous include azalea, begonias, salvia, sage, sedum, rue, and tansy. If you are planting an entire flower garden, you may want to consider planting sage and cedar arbor plants, which grow quickly and can be divided and replanted each year. In addition to the plants listed above, there are many more from which to choose, and these include the popular desert plants such as succulents, dune plants, and desert-flowers. This list of poisonous flowers should give you a little extra research before you start planting your garden.