Does anyone have belladonna in their home? (Safety precautions, care advice, etc)

[MonkeySage]

The plant is as attractive as it is deadly, and I'm considering one for primarily the aesthetic beauty. Our oleander recently died due to a 2 month heat wave/drought.

Any advice? I know don't eat, don't touch with damaged skin, things like that.

Where I live, summers get really hot and humid, and winters almost never bring snow.

[AMFV]

The plant is as attractive as it is deadly, and I'm considering one for primarily the aesthetic beauty. Our oleander recently died due to a 2 month heat wave/drought.

Any advice? I know don't eat, don't touch with damaged skin, things like that.

Where I live, summers get really hot and humid, and winters almost never bring snow.

Put a sign up identifying it as poisonous particularly if you have guests over who may be younger or unaware of its properties.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Wikipedia says "the seedlings need sterile soil to prevent damping off and resent root disturbance during transplanting."

Botanical.com says: "a light, permeable and chalky soil is the most suitable" and "in America, difficulties in the cultivation of Belladonna have been overcome by interspersing plants with rows of scarlet runners, which, shading the herb, cause it to grow rapidly." Apparently "the greatest loss of plants is in wet winters".

The RSPB agrees that, "preferring shady or wooded areas, deadly nightshade plants are best found on limestone and chalk". They seem to think that deadly nightshade is not a threat to any bird life you may have in your garden.

[Chen]

Put a sign up identifying it as poisonous particularly if you have guests over who may be younger or unaware of its properties.

Honestly if you have young children or young children over frequently don't keep a deadly poisonous plant in your home. Kids put EVERYTHING in their mouths.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Honestly if you have young children or young children over frequently don't keep a deadly poisonous plant in your home. Kids put EVERYTHING in their mouths.

Mhm. Don't get complacent because your oleander didn't hurt anyone - belladonna is much more toxic. It only takes two berries on average to kill a child, and they do look quite tempting:

https://usercontent1.hubstatic.com/8948052_f520.jpg
Plus there's always a risk of adventurous adults eating them deliberately...

[AMFV]

Honestly if you have young children or young children over frequently don't keep a deadly poisonous plant in your home. Kids put EVERYTHING in their mouths.

True, although the best solution to that, is probably having it high up. But I would only do that if you only have people over occasionally who are younger.



Plus there's always a risk of adventurous adults eating them deliberately...

Yep, which is why a sign is great, if somebody does eat it and becomes ill, you can point out that there was proper warning on it.

[Vinyadan]

Honestly if you have young children or young children over frequently don't keep a deadly poisonous plant in your home. Kids put EVERYTHING in their mouths.

If oleander was OK, that was already deadly poisonous.