Funny, almost got in trouble!

I planted a hibiscus fireball on the side of my house in a little bed that runs along the path leading to the gate to the backyard. Well it is a new house and I have had many problems. I have had to fight the builder every step of the way. Because of this, I have had many city folks out here including the guy from the permit/inspection office and today the tax assessor came to review his assessment. I can't count how many people keep thinking I am growing marijuana on the side of my house. Today, the tax assessor just stopped in his tracks, looked at me and said "nice plant you got growing there!"
I get such a kick out of it. Do they really think I would be so stupid as to grow marijuana and if I did, would I put it on the side of the house, right up by the front where you can even see it from the street? Glad I didn't plant the poppies that I thought about planting too!

That is funny. We had what I think is an urban legend that in the planters outside of the courthouse there was pot growing in one, I think it was probably cleome.

Great story! I'm so naive, though, that I wouldn't know marijuana if I saw it (I do recall a house plant, though, that people often mistook for pot - can't remember its name).

ga_p, that's the same problem I had with a Vitex tree. People would say it was marijuana. I asked them the same question...why would I gow it here in the front yard? LOL

I was tempted to put a sign that explained the difference with pictures....jeesh.

My brother in law thought the same thing when he saw we had a 4 foot tall false aralia (Dizygotheca elegantissima) growing in the house 20 years ago. I guess a lot of people assume the worst.

That was it - False Aralia!

This area has something of a reputation for illegal "grow-ops." When we moved into our house, the flowerbeds had a strange-looking plant growing here and there, and I pulled all of it out ... just in case! I later identified the pot-looking plant as Motherwort, which grows wild around here.

Last year, when we built a greenhouse we made sure to site it in full view of the road, so as to avoid any suspicion that we might be cultivating "weed". However, I do have a dangerously potent catnip springing up all over the place. One little piece of this wild catnip sends Stumpy, our bob-tailed tabby with a normally sweet disposition, into a delerious biting frenzy.

Once had a BIL who thought he was growing marijuana (he thought he was soooo cool) and it was False Aralia. What a cool fool. LOL

Funnier yet. My dad who I never really knew and only know from stories, really did grow marijuana when I was a kid. He grew it right in the little flower bed in front, right by the front door. (He wasn't the most upstanding citizen.) It must have been just one plant or something. Well he was always in some sort of trouble. We lived in a little town in Ohio. One day the local sheriff or whoever came to the house, was leaning on the house right over it, talking to my mom. He is saying something like.."looking for Jim, heard he's growing some of that wacky tobaccey out here. Now if I catch him.....cause I know what it looks like." And he was standing almost on top of it the whole time.

When we lived in VA, I had several growing in my yard and people always thought it was "mary jane". Can't find any here in TN. If you have some seeds left over, pls. let me know as I would like to grow them again.

We live in the middle of the woods. One Sunday we came home from church and a helo was circling around our property and in the distance I would hear radio transmissions. Found out later that people were growing marj. in a clearing on the wooded property behind our house. The police had been tipped off about where it was. Because I have a greenhouse, from time to time planes will fly low over our property. I always figure they are ck.ing out our place. LIZ