Be savvy with plants that are just too hot to handle
Certain plants are too hot to handle, but the savvy gardener is aware of this and takes measures to avoid injury. Yet others are too hot to ingest comfortably and can catch us unawares.
This fellow has had a brush with most over time and subsequently carries a mental list of offenders which activates an alarm whenever I’m in their presence. Once bitten twice shy.
Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica), cacti, euphorbia and Primula obconica are up there under the heading, ‘contact injury, don’t let them touch your skin’.
When hand-weeding without gloves between rows of emerging vegetables or hardy annuals, those tiny nettle seedlings pack quite a punch. Likewise, the mature version when lurking unseen alongside a seemingly harmless weed you pull up. The deposit of histamine and formic acid causes a painful rash that the legendary dock leaf fails to eliminate.
Handling or repotting cactus can be a tricky business. A large spike piercing the skin is very unpleasant, but the irritation is not as long-lasting as that inflicted by specimens with a mass of tiny needles that remain embedded and are too small to extract. The simple solution is to wrap the cactus body in thick newspaper or wear extra tough gloves when handling or potting.
Euphorbia plants exist in diverse variety the perennial being most popular in ornamental borders. They are also found in weed form as spurge (Euphorbia amygdaloides). One thing they all have in common is a milky sap which flows whenever a leaf, flower or stem is broken. This is an irritant that causes painful blistering on contact with your skin.
Primula family members grown for spring attraction outdoors are generally captivating and safe to handle.
So too are those grown in pots for indoor winter use in our homes – with one exception – Primula obconica. I first experienced it as a young gardener, at a horticultural centre where a variety of house plants were grown for courses. The irritation began on the underside of a wrist whilst repotting a batch of them. Blisters followed! When handling such plants, ordinary gloves that leave part of the wrist or lower arm exposed are no good gauntlets are more in keeping.
There are countless plants capable of causing mechanical injury as the year unfolds.