Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.

[SugarPlumTree]

Potting shed thread for those who enjoy talking about gardens and plants. Plenty of garden chairs and the wood burner lit now there is a chill in the air, please join us !

I love flowering trees, and love the look of laburnum.
Its a lot less common than it used to be.
In Oxford many of the colleges have ancient flowering trees from all over the world: they raise the canopy and then plant underneath. Stunning.

anneharrison.hubpages.com/hub/The-Poisons-of-Agatha-Christe

Interesting article about Agatha Christie and her poisons.

I dimly recall that there is a plant which sheds hairs which are a lung irritant (so a different sort of toxic). Is it fremontodendron?

nothing on the rhs website about it being toxic maud
sorry, photo is me trying to upload a friends open garden pictures

Here is the rhs list of poisonous plants
www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=524
It makes one give up the will to live really, as daffodils, bluebells and poinsettia are on the rhs list. I want to go and eat a daffodil flower just to be perverse, but they mean the bulbs are poisonous if someone mistakes them for onions.

No, I can't pinpoint the plant in question, either. I remember admiring the plant and then reading about this problem with the hairs/fibres. 'Twas a long time ago.

Yes Laburnam, thanks funnyperson The story was told many years ago to me that a baby asleep in a pram under a laburnum tree died and it was due to the scent. Of course the baby may have ingested a seed but that's all I remember sorry!

I researched laburnum poisoning when dd was a baby as I was wondering if I should remove our tree. From what I could gather, only one person has died from laburnum poisoning in the last hundred years, and he was a patient in a psychiatric hospital who collected the seeds over a long period and ate them all in one sitting to commit suicide.

I didn't remove the tree.

The Aconitum story is indeed odd. The gardener must have been unusually sensitive to have been affected just by touching the plant, or people would be keeling over left right and centre. It has made me think twice about planting them though, which is a shame as it's a really useful shade plant.

It's fascinating, the way we hear about stories and also the way the myths are spread isn't it?

It is indeed. We went to Nymans yesterday - some gorgeous sights - and smells as there were Daphne in flower, and their scent mixed partly with the smoke from the potting shed.

More to the point, by our car when we parked there were some magnificent fly agaric specimens ( the traditional red-with-white-spots toadstool). I have googled their poisonousness (sp?) and read Although it is generally considered poisonous, reports of human deaths resulting from eating the mushroom are extremely rare. After parboiling—which removes the mushroom's psychoactive substances—it is eaten in parts of Europe, Asia, and North America. Now there's a surprise for me.

We have work clients panicking about the Aconitum story and asking us lots of questions about what they should doing about growing it in nurseries and open gardens. I think at the moment we're all doing this and mumbling something about coming back with a sensible answer in due course. I hate that an unconfirmed, and possibly extremely rare reaction to something, can trigger a disproportionate response.

Yes, interesting and perhaps inevitable given the way the report was written.
The report needs verifying for a start. Reuters have to have 2 independent verifications before they will publish something. The aconite article may not pass that test.

I'd missed the Acanitum story, how sad very interesting to hear about the Laburnum, that's the first to spring to mind when I think poisonous plants.

I guess the myths that spread are linked to our internal ability to assess risk . I think there's an inate tendency once you hear something once to file it under don't do as you haven't got the time to look into it further and in years gone by the info wouldn't have been available.

It is bucketing here this morning, my garden will be floating at this rate.

Oh yes Bearleigh (taps nose and looks over glasses) fly agaric are not fatally poisonous apparently they give people visions and strange thoughts;I heard that the legend of Father Christmas flying in red and white is because he likes a bit of the red and white mushroom .

I'd love to see fly agaric. Must get over to Nymans.

I agree it would be a real shame if health and safety knee-jerk reactions to the Aconitum poisoning result in wholesale plant destruction. It's clearly a completely one-off event.

I get ridiculously excited whenever I see a fly agaric. I went on a fungi foray last year for my first one and since then I have seen a few - Box Hill is a good source of fly agaric views in the ancient woodland where almost no-one goes ( as opposed to the front which is always heaving)

My gardening is grinding to a halt, I just have the Tulip bulbs to plant and that's probably it for this year, Oh and 4 roses when they arrive.

We've turned our attentions to inside and are finally decorating the lounge - grey carpet, pale blue walls, silver/grey curtains. I am having slight wobbles re the grey remembering rhubarbs house. I have a Dh who takes a very keen interest and my choices were too dull!

I'm sure it will be lovely Geoff. I think it's easier to get away with interesting colours inside than outside.

I have got 200 plants waiting to be planted in the showstopper bed. It's like a quagmire. Lord knows when the soil will be dry enough to dig.

I am getting grey kitchen units (wickes Tiverton Grey)
Grey is the bottom layer of units, chalk white is the top layer of units and some tiles to suggest sky/sea/ etc in between with a nice range cooker. It is my retirement pressie to myself for when I retire. (which I havent yet)

I was dreaming today of travelling round the world visiting countries where it is spring. It must be possible to spend most of the year moving from spring in one country to spring in another country and it must be possible to have gardens and houses so that one could always garden in the spring. If one were a billionaire of course.

Well I finally got out yesterday and planted the majority of my bulbs in the silver birch garden (the one where my last years' were accidentally cut too early). In the grass but in rough circular patterns for each type instead of dotted about mixed. We''ll see how it goes.

At last I planted my marguerite daisies out and thinned the montbretia. (outside our kitchen window). Now all I have to do is to plant 2 variegated hollies and bay seedlings to make a hedge behind the flowers . I've given up on a fence because there is n't any flat stone free earth for it. anyone any ideas for a hardy climber that likes sun in a s.e. facing hedge?

Oh god tulip bulbs! I bought 40 and can't remember where I put them? Should really make the most of the nice day today but have a cake to ice and architrave to put up, oh well fingers crossed for a nice weekend!

Squeaky You're putting up an architrave??

funny your kitchen plans sound beautiful. And I love the idea of following spring round the world.

Rain forecast here for the foreseeable. Doom. Doooooooom.

funny I googled your kitchen it's so lovely, when do you retire?

Gray carpet is ordered thanks for the reasurance, it will be fine :)

rhubarb I don't envy you all that planting, I look forward to some pictures though.

I grabbed a non raining few hours today and planted all the bulbs. I'm probably going to leave the sweet peas till next year, I'm not confident I'll remember to water them.

I like the idea of following spring round the world. I'd do cherry or wisteria in Japan. Here in Au, DH and I have pencilled-in the Melbourne Cup weekend 2015 to drive up to the Little Desert to see the spring flowers.

On the poisonous plants front, here pennyroyal and rue are sold without warnings to pregnant women, though they are well-known as abortifacients. In the UK I remember the plant labels always carried awarding about even being handled by pregnant women.