Toxic Topiary? Proof that you can't buy class...

JimmyBeefshank

Sapling
Messages
39
Reaction score
73
Location
Ann Arbor MI
USDA Zone
6a
I just had to share...
While walking the grounds and discussing the work to be done at a new customers house I noticed something peculiar over between the main house and the pool.
I can't remember exactly what it was but something just felt wrong. Something about that form... Those aerial roots... Those waxy green leaves of three... Just looking at it made me itchy and I could hardly believe it but there it was. Obviously the homeowners must be unaware of what has been growing in their flower bed so I mention to her that I'd be happy to dig it out and dispose of it for her. Without missing a beat she informed me that she knew exactly what it was and that I should leave it be. She said she found it charming.
I didn't ask what happened to the last gardener but I'm sure his remains around here somewhere...
 

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Leo in N E Illinois

The Professor
Messages
11,337
Reaction score
23,254
Location
on the IL-WI border, a mile from ''da Lake''
USDA Zone
5b
I pulled up a poison ivy tree from one of my blueberry fields. It was hidden in a blueberry bush. Trunk was a good 6 feet tall and trunk was 2 inches in diameter. The trunk was straight, smooth bark, and looked almost like harmless cousin staghorn sumac, but leaflets in threes. No doubt it was poison ivy. I should have kept it for bonsai. But I'm quite sensitive to it, can't keep it around.
 

Michael P

Omono
Messages
1,207
Reaction score
1,840
Location
Dallas, Texas, AHS heat zone 9
USDA Zone
8a
Poison ivy, master of disguise! It can be a ground cover, a huge woody climbing vine, a shrub, or a small tree. It grows in sun or shade, and it loves elevated CO2 levels associated with climate change.
 
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