Plants inside the garden or at home can offer a different feeling of freshness and life. However, there are poisonous garden plants that you need to consider before planting, especially if you have pets at home. Gardening experts warn homeowners to take note of these plants, which are common garden plants. It is vital to take precautionary measures if you have kids and pets at home. Avoid letting them go outside without guidance. Surprisingly, some of these deadly plants are beautiful and colorful flowering plants.
1. Lily of the Valley
It is a flowering plant recognized for its sweet scent and lovely color. Anyone will surely like to add it to their garden, but this is one of the garden plants poisonous to dogs. What makes it poisonous is its compound known as cardiac glycosides. When ingested, this compound can make anyone feel dizzy, vomit, and some may develop rashes all over the body. All of these symptoms can happen to humans and can be deadly to pets.
2. Castor Oil Plant
This plant is mostly found in the Mediterranean, Africa, and India. Today, it is widely cultivated in different parts of the world because of its proven healing properties. Aside from its benefits to health as a cure for some conditions, it is also notorious for being poisonous. If you have this plant outside, you need to be very careful as one seed can immediately kill a child or your beloved pet. Hence, it is one of the most poisonous garden plants that can lead to severe vomiting and diarrhea. Even the seed dust can trigger an allergic reaction.
3. Foxglove
This plant does not belong to cat-friendly plants lists as the whole plant is very toxic, especially the leaves present on top of the flower. It is due to its high concentration of chemicals such as digitoxin, digitalin, and digitonin. Once the leaves were ingested, one can feel the effect after 20 minutes like irregular pulse rate, vomiting, diarrhea, and nausea. If you have cats and dogs, you must avoid this flowering plant at all costs.
4. Belladonna
It is a perfect garden plant because it is low maintenance, but not for new gardeners. It is native to some parts of Asia, Europe, and North Africa. The look of the plant is very delicious because of its color that resembles blueberry. It is the reason why many have been victimized and poisoned by this plant. Ingesting just two berries can cause death to a child and pets at home. These garden plants poisonous to dogs can cause paralysis of the gastrointestinal muscles and the heart. One should look for common symptoms such as rapid heart rate, confusion, hallucinations, headaches, and death due to respiratory failure.
5. Dumb Cane
It is a very charming plant because of the combination of white and dark green pigment. However, it is not part of cat-friendly plants lists because its substance is calcium oxalate, which can cause a painful sensation in the mouth, tongue, and airways. It is not as deadly as other plants when ingested in small quantities. Despite the risk involved in plating one, many gardeners still choose to grow dumb cane because it is low maintenance. Aside from that, it does not require a lot of sunlight.
6. Rhubarb
It is a type of vegetable that is safe to eat but avoids consuming too much of its leaves. Consuming a lot of leaves from rhubarb can cause kidney failure.
7. Wisteria
It is a type of lilac plant that is very attractive because of its violet color. It can rarely poison humans, but the seed pod makes these garden plants poisonous to dogs and other pets. If you have these flowers in, then you should stop your dogs from roaming around.
8. Oleander
Oleanders are poisonous garden plants as the whole plant, from its sap to the nectar, is filled with toxins called neriine and oleandrin. Despite its toxins, it is used for medical purposes to treat asthma, warts, leprosy, heart conditions, cancer, and painful menstrual cramps.
9. Water Hemlock
Ingestion of the plant is fatal to both humans and pets because it contains the toxin known as cicutoxin present in its stem, leaves, seed heads, and sap. If you have kids and pets, it is better not to plant water hemlock outside your garden to ensure safety.
