Q: A friend of mine gave me some seeds of castor bean. I understand the plant is very poisonous but it is beautiful and I would like to grow it. Someone else told me it might be illegal to grow. Your ...

Castor bean plants (Ricinus ommunis) are easy to grow from seed when provided with sun and moist, loamy soil. The seeds produce a vibrant plant with large, star-shaped foliage that can grow up to 10 ...

Dear Master Gardener: I was given a small plant as a gift last spring. It grew into a gigantic plant with striking leaves and spiky pink seed pods. I've learned it is a castor bean plant. I'd like to ...

Hardy fuschias waiting to be planted since the Canby plant sale in the ground: check Miscellaneous sundry plants acquired in the past few weeks in the ground: check If I keep this up, what am I going ...

Q: What can you tell me about the old-fashioned castor-bean plant? I believe my parents had them for shade for the chickens. Also, I planted several camellia seeds, but none sprouted. What's wrong? A: ...

Sweltering heat and bright sunlight do not a tropical garden make, even if many common garden plants, from marigolds to okra, do hail from the tropics. That tropical look comes from lush, bold foliage ...

In 1978, a Bulgarian dissident died after KGB assassins jabbed him in the leg with an umbrella containing a poison pellet on a London street. Fast-forward to February 2003, when former Secretary of ...