Christmas Plants Around Pets & Small Children

1 December, 2011 Reply

During the holidays we enjoy having all kinds of beautiful wreaths, flower arrangements, swags, and other living decorations. However, if you have pets or small children joining you for the holidays, you need to be aware of plants that can pose a hazard to them. Most plants are not out and out killers, but they can cause a lot of discomfort and possible trips to the hospital.

First off, know your animal. Some animals are totally uninterested in new plants, others have to chew everything. If you plan a new baby pet to be given to someone in the family this Christmas, better to stay away from any, even the mildly toxic, plants. You don’t want to end up in the emergency room with a sick puppy or kitten. Worse yet would be to lose the pet altogether.

Know your children, too. The younger they are the more you have to watch out for ingestion. An infant that is crawling will want to put everything it finds in its mouth. A toddler may be responsive enough to understand when you say no.

Of course being safe is the most important thing. Here are some of the plants frequently used in holiday decorating that can be toxic to pets and/or children.

Once thought highly toxic, poinsettias have been bred to be only mildly irritating.

Poinsettia – It is mainly seen as a non-toxic plant anymore. Breeding has lowered the toxic substances found in them. However, small animals can still have some discomfort if they ingest a lot of the leaves.

Mistletoe – The berries are highly toxic. You should remove the berries and discard them in a safe place if you have critters or children that may munch them.

Holly – I think most people know that the red berries are poisonous, so nix the berries if munchers abound.

Four lesser known, but still highly toxic plants are, bittersweet, boxwood, pine, and Jerusalem cherry (also called winter cherry). Jerusalem cherry is quite toxic and can cause a coma. Pine is toxic in large amounts. Small amounts can be irritating, but if they eat a few pine needles you don’t need to panic.

You might decide to forego live decorations for a few years when you have youngsters, be the human or furry, in your house during the holidays. After they’ve outgrown munching everything in site, you can start using live decorations again.

Caring For A Cut Christmas Tree

24 November, 2011 Reply

There's nothing like the smell of a fresh cut Christmas tree.

I haven’t been able to give up my cut tree, yet. Even though I know that growing Christmas trees is a highly toxic industry, I still want that fresh cut smell in the house, and I’ve not found an artificial tree that looks anything like a real one. So, until I’m able to give up this vice, I try to make sure the tree stays as green and safe as possible.

I went straight to the expert’s site, the National Christmas Tree Association to check and see if there was anything I should know that I didn’t already. Actually I was doing everything right, except I put warm water in the base when I bring it in because I was told it will make the cells in the tree swell more and take up more water, but they say that it doesn’t matter. Second, I didn’t know you shouldn’t burn any part of a Christmas tree. I’ve often burned the piece I cut from the bottom and sometimes a couple of the branches we’ve removed. They don’t say why, but I’ll heed that this year.

Really the most important thing you can do is keep them dry, cool, and watered. Avoid putting worn lights on them, unless you want the possibility of burning your house down, and try to keep pets and small children away from them. I recently read about a woman who was trying to keep her cat from climbing the tree and sleeping in it! Now that’s a unique, but hazardous decoration. The tree had toppled a number of times last Christmas and she’s trying to figure out what she can do this year to keep it up for the season.

So, if you’re like me, and still love to have a cut tree to decorate, just follow the tips in the above link for a safe holiday season. Live trees are another story. I’ll cover them next time.