Learning the Hard Way

I have this little garden bed on the other side of the turn-around in my driveway that is used for those annual flowers from seed packets that I come across.  Those seeds that are free from the seed-exchange, or that come in the mail, or that I have collected from the prior year and lie scattered in an old shoe box.  Most of the seeds do not succeed since it is too far from the nearest hose to water with any regularity and it competes for sun and sustenance with two tulip trees that grow right beside the bed.  I have put an ugly little metal fence around it since there are also a few plants that rodents love to eat in the spring and they can be protected here.  Since the flower bed is only 6 feet by 4 feet, it frequently gets crowded with  the hardy and fast spreading cosmos and in years past celosia.

It is a bit of an experimental ever changing flower bed.  This past year I planted larkspur.  I was not anticipating much success because this plant does not like a hot climate.

It took off like a house afire.  The plants did not need staking as they were able to lean against the curved fence as they reached away from the trees and toward the sun.  I had never tried growing larkspur before, but the seed packet was a gift.  They were lovely.  The light colored double petals of a few plants was perfect for photos. And it bloomed for a couple of weeks at least.  Visitors commented on its loveliness.

When we finally had a break in the heat at the beginning of September I headed outside to clean up the summer gardens.  The larkspur, while hidden to some extent by the prolific cosmos, had turned into dark brown stalks of dead plant matter.  I reached over the fence and pulled it all out and carried the 4 foot long plants to the burn pile.  Back in July I had already collected a batch of seeds.

Then  a few days later, I learned a lesson.  I had read years ago that larkspur if eaten by cattle, or another other animal for that matter, will kill.  Farmers do not move cattle into their fields until the wild larkspur has died back.  I had read that somewhere, but I did not know how toxic this plant was/is!

At first it looked like an infected bug bite.

You can see in the photo above how a second area appeared just from me folding my arms while I slept.

You can also see from above the outline of a bandage I had placed over the bug bite the second or third day when it looked infected.

This rash on the inner sides of both of my arms was burning and itchy and spread like crazy.  It started as one bug bite that looked like it had become infected in my upper inner arm and this grew in blisters to the size of a quarter.  Then it crawled down my arm and at night spread to my other arm while I slept.  I thought I had an infection and because of the intensity of its spread, my mind went to those nasty staph infections that are so hard to control (MSRA!)!  Even my doctor wondered what it was and when I convinced her I had not been near any poison ivy she started me on antibiotics and steroid cream.  I washed sheets and pillowcases and towels and hubby kept up a sterile regime away from me.  The rash did not move to the top of my arms where the skin is less tender.

As you have probably guessed by now, the cause was gathering all those long dead larkspur plants in my sleeveless shirt.  It has been about ten days and I am now getting back to normal, although the rash, which is turning darker in color, is still there without all of its prior nasty side effects.  Perhaps TMI, but lesson learned!