This was an Interesting Evening: Jane in the ER…

…from trimming a plant.

It seems everything about euphorbias (spurge) is poisonous. She had trimmed the euphorbia we brought in, and began having eye pain. A fast check of the internet turned up "sap in the eye: blindness," seeds–death. Fumes off the living plant can be harmful to the eyes. Etc. We called OSG for advice and headed for the ER.

Two hours later and several hundred dollars the worse, I fear, we are back. Jane is fine. We at least provided a fast education on euphorbias for the ER staff. A stain test turned up no lesion or abrasion, and Jane's action of a warm water rinse proved the right thing to have done.

So…take it from us, dear friends. We have swept the floor to be sure there are no seeds for the cats to get into: the plant will be trimmed outside the house, wearing gloves and goggles, and all pieces discarded.

And Jane has a prescription and a wad of instructions.

We are very glad to have found out about euphorbias, which are a gloriously beautiful green plant, the delight of bees, and just very nasty to those to trim them. The word from the US Poison Center: if you get the sap straight in the eye it is epic pain, and goes downhill from there, including blindness.

So wear goggles and gloves, fellow gardeners, with this one.