Paphos Life

If you have a relatively small garden and want to protect your property from burglars but also from cats and dogs there is a perfect plant: Natal plum, also called carissa macrocarpa. The shrub can easily grow into a very very dense hedge and as soon as is grown 1.50 m high it is better than a electric fencing. Not only that there are very nasty double thorns, all parts of the plant except the ripe fruits are highly poisonous. If one comes in contact with the milk of the leaves having open skin from the scratches, that's it. Native in South Africa it made its way also into India where it is used wide spread as hedges to protect properties. I was reading articles in the past about people that died in India as they good stuck in these dense hedges. If a intruder is wearing long trousers or jeans the thorns will go through them and he will definitely stop to try to pass through. You can cut the hedge in shape with proper tools and heavy duty gloves. OK it takes a couple of years until it grows to more than 1 m hight but when you can wait it is worth to plant it as it is also very pretty looking all year long dark green leaves and from March to Christmas nice white flowers Jasmine type, smelling beautiful. ( a little bit like Parfum Joy de Jean Patou.) I took some photos from my friends garden to show you how it looks. This piece of hedge is that size after 3 years planted as small as 30 cm. You can ask in the flower shop how many to plant per running meter. (2-3?)





On pic from Wiki where one can see also the fruits and the nasty thorns..


Max

Interesting! Thanks for sharing this knowledge.

Interesting. Thanks Max

If its that dangerous it should be banned, what if a child/animal comes into contact with it

WHL wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2017 3:55 pm If its that dangerous it should be banned, what if a child/animal comes into contact with it

If you protect your property with a barbed wire fence and a child/animal try to enter and have a accident followed by a blood infection should this also be banned? This is Mother Nature and this plant is second poisonous to the common Oleander plant which you find everywhere in Cyprus even in playgrounds and BBQ sites in the Forest. From the seeds of the Oleander one produces rat poison which is very effective, also when 1-2 seeds are swallowed from a child it can be fatal. I explained above that the milk of the plant is dangerous if it comes in larger quantities in your bloodstream if your skin is scratched from the thorns. Normal contact won't kill you...
There is a very interesting article of the natal plum and the benefits of eating the ripe plum itself. http://www.eattheweeds.com/natal-plums-num-num/

Max

We have a pretty lethal bougainvillea hedge along our back perimeter and at over 2 mtrs high no one is coming through that.

Another interesting post! We will hopefully be moving to a little Sea Caves villa in September, and it has a very open garden that anybody can get into. I'm not happy about that, so I was wondering what to do to increase privacy and security at the same time. Perhaps I'll go for a hedge of this stuff, and put up some of the bamboo screening in the meantime whilst the hedge takes. There is some oleander around some of the perimeter wall (a very low wall, under a metre thus the need for something more) along with some bougainvillea (god help me, that stuff sure goes grow) in a corner, so I hope I'll be able to get it sorted.

Bograt wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2017 6:13 pm Another interesting post! We will hopefully be moving to a little Sea Caves villa in September, and it has a very open garden that anybody can get into. I'm not happy about that, so I was wondering what to do to increase privacy and security at the same time. Perhaps I'll go for a hedge of this stuff, and put up some of the bamboo screening in the meantime whilst the hedge takes. There is some oleander around some of the perimeter wall (a very low wall, under a metre thus the need for something more) along with some bougainvillea (god help me, that stuff sure goes grow) in a corner, so I hope I'll be able to get it sorted.

I try to help you Bograt but you have to tell me how many meters of hedge you are talking about. If you want to do the job yourself you better check first the quality of soil (if any) by digging down 30 cm at different points. Bougainvillea and Oleander growing 5 times faster if they get enough water and food than the Natal Plum... but Oleander is not really good for security as you can break easily the stems even large ones of 4 m hight and they have no thorns...
Max

cyprusmax47 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2017 7:32 pm I try to help you Bograt but you have to tell me how many meters of hedge you are talking about. If you want to do the job yourself you better check first the quality of soil (if any) by digging down 30 cm at different points. Bougainvillea and Oleander growing 5 times faster if they get enough water and food than the Natal Plum... but Oleander is not really good for security as you can break easily the stems even large ones of 4 m hight and they have no thorns...
Max

Thank you lovely Max . As my husband to be, you are very kind.
Well, we don't get into the place until we come back in September, so we will inspect the site then. I did not know that those shrubs would grow so much faster with proper watering, so I'll be watering the oleanders and holding back on the bougie-woogie, or the blighted thing will take over
I know there are several other shrubs that are in the garden around the low wall, but they have had what you could call a rather ferocious pruning, so are not exactly helping at the moment.
Any burglars that intrude will be met by me with the electric mosquito zapper so kindly recommended by Road Warrior. Could be interesting times ahead

Happy in Cyprus wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2017 6:29 pm Reading your post Max made me realise that we have one of these shrubs in our garden. It lends itself to be shaped like a Bonsai tree. Was not aware that the shrub was poisononous, but I agree that the thorns are long and pretty lethal. An evergreen...and very pretty

Lloyd that is beautifully manicured. Who keeps it in shape?