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Poisonous Lily of the Valley - Can I plant it near raspberries and fruit trees?

Jamin Grey

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posted 6 years ago

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I just got a bunch of Lily of the Valley, which is very poisonous.

Can I plant it around the base of my cherry trees, or will it somehow make the cherries poisonous?

This is also about fifteen feet from my raspberry rows. Will the raspberries become poisonous is they spread too close to them?

Chris Kott

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Location: Marmora, Ontario

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posted 6 years ago

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All parts of the plant are poisonous, but it is still used in limited quantities in herbalism.

You are safe to plant these wherever. The toxicity won't be imparted to anything. The most dangerous thing about the lily of the valley is that their berries often look appetizing to children; they shouldn't be unsupervised around lily of the valley.

Don't eat it, and don't handle broken plants with bare hands and then suck on your fingers. It won't negatively affect cherries, raspberries, or anything else that grows around them, though they prefer slightly alkaline soil, whereas most food plants that we enjoy, with few exceptions, prefer a soil pH just on the acidic side of things.

-CK

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Jamin Grey

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posted 6 years ago

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Thank you for answering about the trees/raspberries!

I'd like to eventually run cattle, sheep, pigs, near/under my trees (with adequate trunk protection) - I also have two dogs who free-range, and free-range ducks, chickens, and turkey.
From arbitrarily reading online, sounds like it's better to be safe than sorry with these guys... I got about thirty of Lily of the Valley for free, but the more I read about it, the more I want to just throw them in the firepit instead of planting them.

Chris Kott

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Do what you feel appropriate. I don't know that I would want livestock munching on them, but you could theoretically plant them somewhere else; burning them sounds like an overreaction to me.

If you don't want them, you could pot them up individually, or not, and try to give them away online, maybe for trade.

-CK

Jamin Grey

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posted 6 years ago

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I ended up planting them in a location I know I'll never be running animals (other than free range poultry and my dogs, but I doubt they'll munch on it, as they have much better eatings); thanks for the info!

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