castor bean

I intend to plant MANY castor beans along a long fence and also plan to clump them in some large corners that I have. I'm wondering how close to plant them to each other. I don't need to go for record heights, but would like a full filled in look, hopefully six feet high or so. Do they crowd each other out if planted too close?

I'm also wondering if anyone has tryed or knows if it is possible to dry them at the end of the season and bring them in to be used as a tropical floral arrangement in the house.

Thank you for any and all responses for suggestions/advice.

I suppose it has already been mentioned on DG, but again,Ricinus communis ( caster bean) is a pretty toxic plant. It needs a warm climate, does well in Calif. It is the source of ricin, a deadly poisen with seemingly no antidote. But then one wonders about castor oil.
By definition; castor oil:a colorless or yellowish oil from castor beans,used as a cathartic and as a lubricant. Castor bean; the large , highly poisonous , beanlike seed of the castor-oil plant. Castor oil plant; a tropical plant (ricinus communis) of the spurge family, with large, beanlike seeds from which castor oil is extracted. Courtesy Webster's New World Dictionary.

But the castor bean is natural. How could it hurt anyone?

George, many plants contain poisonous and toxic properties. The poison in castor beans is concentrated in the seeds, although the leaves and stems can also be poisonous.

Certainly don't appear to be poisonous to the blasted rabbits that just ate 4 of my seedlings to the ground! They thought it was desert!

Just don't roast and eat the beans and you'll be o.k....lol

Larkie

I was joking, there are so many people who keep looking for a naturl this or a ntural that when many natural things are deadly poisonous to one species or another.

If they are planted too close they won't get as tall, will have to struggle with each other for water, nutrients.
I have heard you can plant them 2 or 3 ft. apart. I would try 3 ft. apart.
I plant them every year. I've had some get to be 15 ft. tall. They are treated as annuals here.
When we were kids we played in and around them and were always told they were poisonous. You can teach children to leave plants alone that are poisonous.
This year the neighbors have horses, so I will have to be careful of not planting them near the bordering fences.

I have been struggling with 'to plant or not' with castors.

We have decided no in our home. We have a 10 year old who would run away from one! She is super cautious.

But we have three dogs one of whichis a lovely affectionate garbage disposal on legs and eats tangerines, morning glory, coco hulls, loquats, lavaterra blooms, tomatoes...you get the picture.

Plus, we have neighbors new to this country with toddlers and there is a big language barrier. I just don't think that we could explain well enough and if something happened it would be awful.

But I do love them and have seeds to give away.....email me if you want some! (I have the purple and the pink kinds)

If one were to plant castor bean plants in a container, how many plants per what size pot would be optimal? I have red spire and another kind growing in small pots, and need to plant some out; I'd like to have one or two in large containers, though.

Yie..."The seeds of castor bean or castor oil plant, are very poisonous to people, animals and insects; just one milligram of ricin (one of the main toxic proteins in the plant) can kill an adult." Source: http://www.tropilab.com/ricinus-com.html

I'm still growing them, however.

I'm growing them as well, I hope, but not irresponsibly, or without due consideration. I have dogs, but they don't chew on plants, and although it seems like my kids and their friends eat everything in sight, they are all old enough to know better. (I think. At 18 -20, who knows?) We also don't live in an area with small children, and the next door neighbor is an RV storage, so I am fairly comfortable using these for a screen between me and the RVs.

Next year, I'm going to plant a nice clump of them about half way up the stretch in this photo, on the right side of the driveway. We're getting rid of the ivy bed there this year, but next year it's fair game!