Although not deadly poisonous, Diefenbachia can take you breath away.

Published On:Monday, March 15, 2010

By Gardener Jack

There are some plants that have considerable intrinsic virtue that should nevertheless be thought about very carefully before planting in an ordinary Bahamian garden. Some of them have very bad habits.

Let us start with the pandanus. Wherever pandanus is sown, it tends to take over. The variety known as screw pine is the most popular and probably the easiest to contain, but other varieties transgress their bounds very easily.

Dealing with pandanus is horrible due to the spines that run along the edges and midribs of leaves. A tennis court in Treasure Cay, Abaco, planted pandanus just outside the high retaining chain link fence. A few balls escape the fence, of course, and end up in the pandanus. You can see them there. Getting them out of the pandanus is so fraught with danger that the balls are left right where they land. Not the kind of plant you need in your yard.

The screw pine is a pandanus that you might get away if you have a big yard and keep your distance from it. A mature plant has buttressed roots and bears large seed pods that are vaguely edible when ripe.

The leaves of pandanus are stripped and processed in some cultures and turned into straw hats. But please note that the leaves are taken from the wild and not from a cultivated area.

Plant a fig tree in your yard and I am sure you will live to regret it. Ficus benjamina is used too often as a hedge and needs very regular pruning to keep its shape. If you let it get out of control you are in trouble. In 2009 many people with benjamina hedges lost them to disease.

The large leaf focuses are even more pushy. The one called rubber tree has beautiful purple leaves and up to six feet tall it is handsome. Thereafter it becomes threatening.

Allowed to grow at its own chosen rate it will take over the district. If you really love the rubber tree there is good news. You can grow it in a large container and restrict its aim to take over the world.

Oleander is a beautiful shrub when it flowers and I have nothing against oleanders growing in public places. They are, however, dubious denizens of a regular garden. All parts of the plant are poisonous, very poisonous. They would be a danger to your children and grandchildren and any of your neighbours' charges that play in your yard.

Children have died from roasting hot dogs and marshmallows on oleander sticks.

Those of you who love oleander and will never ever have children in your yard, go ahead. If you are like me with kids around all the time in the dozens, eschew oleander. I once had a neighbour's child chew a stalk of a dieffenbachia plant in my yard. Another name for dieffenbachia is 'dumb cane' for whoever eats it will be unable to talk. The incident cost me a doctor's trip and fees but what if I had had oleander in the yard and the child had decided to chew on that?

My final selection is the mysore raspberry. It is the only raspberry to thrive in tropical conditions and although the fruit is a little smaller than most grown in temperate countries it is very tasty. Some raspberry varieties are thornless but the mysore raspberry is extremely thorny. It produces fruit sporadically all year round but mostly in spring, May being the most productive month.

So why should we beware? The canes of the mysore raspberry will grow anywhere from 10 to 15 feet tall. Some fruits will hit the ground and form new briars. Initially you will not mind because you want even more production of raspberries. The day you decide you have too many mysore raspberry briars is the day you will realise they are almost impossible to get rid of. The more you prune them, the better they grow.

I have none of the plants I have written about in my garden and never have had. Consider yourself warned.

* j.hardy@coralwave.com