Is this Oleander?
Hi all, can anyone confirm if, as I suspect, this is oleander? I have 2 young children and 2 cats and understand this can be very poisonous which is a shame as I love this and it is well established in the garden of the house we moved into late last year.
If it is oleander can anyone advise the best method for removing it and also anything that might be a suitable replacement? I particularly love the mediterranean feel of the plant so I would be looking for something simillarly mediterranean and colourful.
Thanks
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yup, sure is
on the poison front, personally I'd not lose sleep over it. Most things in gardens are potentially " poisonous"
Thanks for the ID. My understanding (and correct me if I'm wrong) is that this is poisonous enough to kill children and animals and this raises the risk of keeping the plant above that of all other common garden plants and their level of toxicity. Can anyone suggest some similar alternatives?
You would need to eat the leaves to suffer poisoning. As this is true of a wide range of plants the usual training regarding not eating anything in the garden would apply. Oleanders have a wide range where many millions of people live but there are few reported deaths. Wikipedia mentions that there are only three confirmed deaths in the US, where it seems the victims were active in their own demise.
Not sure you can train cats not to eat it but I assume that if they haven't done so already they know to avoid it. Seems to be very toxic to horses though.
I read somewhere that it is not good to burn it as the smoke is toxic though. I grew some from seed once and had them in my greenhouse for years and had many cats with no problems. Unless you've go one of those cats that likes eating leaves, like the one of mine that eats the tips off my cordyline unless I hide it where the cat (and I
) can't see it!
Gardens are full of very toxic plants, potato and rhubarb leaves to name just two. For hundreds of years we've brought branches of berried holly into our homes at Christmas, but the berries are poisonous. Children should not be in a garden (or anywhere else) unsupervised until they can be relied on not to eat stuff without checking with an adult first.
However, if you are too anxious to allow the oleander to remain, I would suggest you look at replacing it with hibiscus http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/howtogrow/3294313/How-to-grow-Hibiscus.html . According to the information I can find online these are toxic to cats and dogs, but not humans.
To remove the oleander just dig it up and take or send it to the council composting place.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.