Large pots of cas­tor bean plants wait­ing for homes. Some may try to fol­low you home.

There’s one way to have instant trop­i­cal drama in your gar­den and that’s the addi­tion of a cas­tor bean plant (or three) to your land­scape. These mas­sive palm-like frondy beau­ties (Ricinus com­mu­nis) are native to Africa and can grow up to 15 feet high in the right loca­tion. I can’t say they’ve ever achieved those heights in my own gar­den, but they’ve topped out at over six feet for me. I used to grow these from seed and hadn’t thought of them for awhile until my sis­ter started han­ker­ing after some. Our mother used to grow them in her gar­den every year, so we have fond sum­mer mem­o­ries of these plants.  I hadn’t seen the plants any­where in the past few years, or the seed, so I was thrilled today to see these healthy spec­i­mens for sale at Fiesta Gardens, already about three feet tall in large pots.

Apart from the strik­ing, visual drama of their struc­ture, the colours are also sat­is­fy­ing: vari­able shades of greeny bronze with bright red stems and veins. A clever, func­tional use of the cas­tor bean plant can be to cover up an unsightly view, or to cre­ate a screened area in your garden.

Globular, prickly, red pods (that you can see just begin­ning to form in the pic­ture above) con­tain the spot­ted seeds. The unusual look­ing seed pods add to the sculp­tural and dec­o­ra­tive qual­ity of the plant; how­ever they are con­sid­ered poi­so­nous, (the toxin ricin can be extracted from the seeds) so cau­tion is nec­es­sary in mak­ing sure that pets or chil­dren don’t ingest them. Cutting off the seed pods and dis­pos­ing of them can ensure that won’t happen.

Like all plants with known poi­so­nous aspects, cul­ti­va­tion of these plants is a bit con­tro­ver­sial, and in some areas there is talk of ban­ning them. However, a great deal of every­day plants that we com­monly live with are also poi­so­nous, includ­ing monks­hood, chrysan­the­mums, lily of the val­ley and rhubarb leaves.

Unfortunately these ten­der plants live only one sea­son, and come frost, they’ll be gone; but while they’re here, what a show!