Hello, We are soon going to move into a house in Southern California that has quite a bit of shrubbery, my sister in law thinks that some of the hedges along one wall are poisonous, but she's not sure. Since we have a 3 year old boy I am concerned about this and would like to get information about the subject. Does anyone know of a good source of information on the subject? I am attaching a couple of images of the shrubs in question, my sister in law thinks they may be oleander. Does anyone know what this is and whether it is poisonous or not? Thanks in advance for any information you can provide.
Hello mcampos, That does look like oleander, which is toxic. Here is a link to a site that provides lists of safe and poisonous plants commonly planted in California. http://www.calpoison.org/public/plants.html Looking over the lists, one sees how difficult it would be to avoid/remove all these plants from the landscape. Knowing which to avoid is very important. It is never to early to start the "yuck" lesson with plants. I grew up on a farm. I remember my mother calling bitter things "baxy" (a made-up word for foul/distasteful). After tasting some horrible (non-toxic) "baxy" things we were ready to learn from her advice, which plants to avoid. If the yard is really big and removing the most toxic plants is not possible (removing a large oleander hedge could cause quite a loss of privacy), you might set up a limited play area for your son, where you know all the plants are safe.
Thanks Eric, We also have a concern for our small dog and cat, those oleanders may have to come out. On the other hand the rest of the shrubs seem to be non-poisonous, roses, etc. Miguel.
I was also told to take great care when handling them for pruning etc. I am not sure if it is an old wives's tale but even the smoke is toxic should people still be into disposing them them in this environmentaly unfriendly method. I think however a child could be taught not too touch such as picking flowers. Liz
