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gnkindrick

Oleander and nasturtiums

gnkindrick
19 years ago

In an enormous container, I'm growing some oleander and some nasturtiums. I grew the nasturtiums to eat. I love those leaves and flowers. The plants have established themselves and now I want to enjoy my nasturtiums. I was not really thinking about the poisonous properties of oleander when I planted the nasturtiums in the same pot. I just had this big ol' pot and decided to throw some nasturtium seeds into it. My question is this: Will the poisons in the oleander roots effect my nasturtiums? Will it be harmful for me to eat them? Does anyone have any idea about this?

Comments (7)

  • nebancsvirag
    19 years ago

    oleander is poisenous if you ingest it.
    Cant see how that effects other plants around

  • bigeasyjock
    19 years ago

    I agree that you should be o.k but I'm won't eat those Nasts. ;o)
    Many hort. people will argue that no transactions occur between plants except incases like with hickories where its the plants release a poison through their roots.
    On the other hand the Permaculturist will tell you the oppisite. Permaculture is partly based on the idea of communcation between plants via soil life. They say you should plant Nitrogen fixing plants so the surrounding plants will benifit from the N fixers activity. Again the hort. guys will tell you you must kill the N fixers and have the roots decay before any other plants can use that N.
    There now you decide ;o)
    Mike

  • athagan
    19 years ago

    I have no idea if the nasturtiums would take up any oleander produced toxins or not. And because I don't know if they were mine I'd forego eating them.

    .....Alan.

  • Dino_Tsapatsaris
    19 years ago

    I am an expert on edible wild plants, Florida style which means one should also know something about the poisonous ones. And while I do not know the answer to your question consider this: In Tampa many years ago a family was sickened and died after cooking hot dogs on spit sticks made from oleander. But more to the point, a woman in Miami intent on suicide soaked eight oleander leaves in water overnight and drank the liquid. She was near death a few hours later when a relative happened to find her, just in time. It is not impossible to think rain could wash some toxins from the leaves and bark to the soil. Don't nurserymen where gloves when handling oleanders, and sometimes face masks? I know I wouldn't take the chance. The probability might be remote, but is the narsturtium in your salad really worth it? Plant some petunias with the oleander and don't eat those either.

  • daer0n_hotmail_com
    14 years ago

    I would say don't eat petunias because they are a member of the Solanaceae family -deadly night shade-, petunias aren't edible.

  • suseart
    14 years ago

    So are potatoes, eggplant and tomato from that family though. You really need to do more research on a plant and its family than that before you decide it's poisonous.

  • Suzi AKA DesertDance So CA Zone 9b
    14 years ago

    Beats me why anyone would want an Oleander in the first place! Aside from that, I say, plant a nice fig tree in that pot, or a nice pomegranite, and let the nasturtiums be happy, and enjoy the fruits of the tree as well!!

    Suzi

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