We have big red poppies growing wild in our garden, and I sprinkled the seeds around to get more growing as they are quite showy, and got pink, smaller, daintier ones growing. So maybe they morph as they seed... I have looked at the seed heads and wondered if their sap had any properties. Interesting. I have yet to bake with the seeds.

We also have a greenhouse which was quite a mess whe we bought it, covered in a tarp, and a big bag of tomato fertilizer sitting in there and some scraggley plant bits and beer bottles. The previous residents were pot smoking youths so they were no doubt growing it in there. Ack! The sleezy girl posters they had up in here! ANd the stink!

I've also seen a wild Belladonna plant in England on a heritage site. That plant is of cource very dangerous, and was used in the past in witches' flying ointments, and to dilate the pupils for beauty. It was considdered a wicked plant. It is presently used in certain medicines, for the heart I think...

I've seen bittersweet nightshade growing on the BC coast, which is related, and also dangerous and used in medicines, but doesn't have the same folklore attatched.

Our dear departed neighbour was wonderful with our cats. It wasn't until 2 years after she passed away that we discovered she had planted "cat grass" in her rock garden for them. (we saw the tag)

I'm betting that the grandson did not go claim it.

Crikey!!

It's a good thing though that I didn't have poppies growing in my yard when I was 17, as I probly would have tried them then. Glad I'm all grown up now! Jeesh, maybe the previous residents planted them... quite likely.

Oh well, I like them, they're one of the few flowers that grow well so they get to stay. My Dahlias did pretty well last year too, so I'll be buying some more of them for this year. The glads on the other hand, I had one bloom and the flowers were green!

I was little and we were talking about seeds and things growing... in school.

It was also the 1970's.

So, when I found a Sucrets tin container with round seeds in it at my aunt's (she had a girlfriend who gardened), I took them to school.

The teacher called my mom and said "___ got a hold of, took and brought in Mary Jane seeds"  (I told you it was the 70's.)

My mom thought she said Mary Jane's seeds and said "tell Mary Jane's mother..."
 

The teacher said "not Mary Jane's - Mary Jane, ___ brought in grass seed"

My mom was horrified and scared, she thought the cops would be called.
 

No, the teacher just sent me home with my Sucrets tin full of seeds.

Until the day she died my aunt teased my mom about "Mary Jane's seeds", we still tease my mom. Later, as adults, we learned mom knew ol' Mary Jane, (It was after all the 1970's) she just never thought that would be what the teacher said.

many years ago, my grandparents were shopping for a new residence in penticton, bc. when they went into one in particular, my grandmother was impressed at the green thumb of the seller, but commented to the realtor showing the place that many of the plants, which she had never seen before, looked weedy.

later on, we discovered that the house had been the focus of a HUGE drug bust in the city.

my grandma TOTALLY nailed it.