I wouldn't, they are popping up all over my garden this year! They're deep rooted as well so a real pain to get rid of an established plant. Also the bright red berries are highly poisonous but attractive to young children.
Best fill in our ponds too...and don't get me started on digitalis!!!
See the segment on them in Wild Isles. You'll look at them in a whole new light!
That's what I was going to say. Absolutely fascinating they way they attract a type of night flying fly and trap them for a day while they gather pollen, then they let the fly go from the trap so they take the pollen to another one the next day....who knew that?..... Well maybe Chris Packham but I certainly didn't.
I leave them in my garden to grow; they have bright red berries later in the year....thanks to those night time flies.
Based in Sussex, I garden to encourage as many birds to my garden as possible.
My children did eat the berries when they were 2 and 4, they thought they were sweeties. They soon realised they weren't as they burn the mouth and throat. I rushed them to hospital where they were given something to make them very sick. They were fine, have children of their own now. They escaped into the garden for a few minutes when I was busy with something else.
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
Gosh, your children had a narrow escape @Busy-Lizzie, must have been quite frightening. It was so hard to keep an eye on little ones all the time.
I don't like those plants at all, find them really quite sinister with the red berries but probably associate them with the dire warnings against touching/eating them when we were kids. I've got or had a big clump at the bottom of the hedge which I had tried to eradicate over the years. A year or two ago I had a paved path put down at the foot of the hedge and thought that would kiss them goodbye. Not a bit, I've just seen them grow back from under the paving in an inch or so gap!
That's good to know @Busy-Lizzie, walked through our local community orchard this morning (where the younger chlldren play) and noticed lots of those plants all over the space.
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I leave them in my garden to grow; they have bright red berries later in the year....thanks to those night time flies.
My children did eat the berries when they were 2 and 4, they thought they were sweeties. They soon realised they weren't as they burn the mouth and throat. I rushed them to hospital where they were given something to make them very sick. They were fine, have children of their own now. They escaped into the garden for a few minutes when I was busy with something else.
I don't like those plants at all, find them really quite sinister with the red berries but probably associate them with the dire warnings against touching/eating them when we were kids. I've got or had a big clump at the bottom of the hedge which I had tried to eradicate over the years. A year or two ago I had a paved path put down at the foot of the hedge and thought that would kiss them goodbye. Not a bit, I've just seen them grow back from under the paving in an inch or so gap!