What’s small, has shiny bright red wings, a black head and legs and is capable of destroying a lot of ornamental plants? It’s the red lily beetle and it’s the terror of many gardeners worldwide.

Also known as the lily leaf beetle, this small insect is notorious in areas where lilies are cultivated. First seen in Montreal, the red lily beetle has spread throughout Canada and in some parts of the United States.

“They are often confused with the cardinal beetles since they also have a black underside and wings that are spotless and red in color. However, lily leaf beetles have wings that are shinier with tiny dimples on them. They are more rounded in shape compared to the dull, narrow, flattened and elongated cardinal beetle,” according to the editors of Wikipedia.

“Another difference between the two is their food preference. Lily leaf beetles are herbivores and are usually found on lily plants eating their leaves whereas cardinal beetles are usually found on tree barks and flowers and feed on flying insects. Lastly, the cardinal beetle has comb-like antennae,” they added.

As I mentioned in my previous article, children under age 5 are the usual victims of plant poisoning owing to their curious nature. At this age, it is hard to resist the allure of bright-colored and sweet-smelling flowers even if some of them are poisonous.

“Lots of plants are poisonous or capable of causing highly allergic reactions. Some will also pierce you with their sharp spines. Few actually do lasting harm but some should be treated with care and respect,” according to doctors at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Australia.

“Many plants have poisonous bulbs or roots but as these are usually safely underground, they are not likely to poison anyone. Others taste so awful that it is difficult to eat enough to cause a serious injury. Oleander, for example tastes so bitter and unpalatable that it is difficult to accidentally eat very many of the leaves. On the other hand there are plants that look appealing but contact can have bad results,” they added.

However, protecting our kids is easier said than done since it can be difficult to recognize a poisonous plant. Often there are no telltale signs or characteristics that distinguish a poisonous plant from one that isn’t. Therefore, we have to educate ourselves to save our children.

Police raided the home of an elderly couple in Bristol, England because a flowery plant in their garden smelled like pot.

Ivor and Margaret Wiltshire of Kingswood had just returned home from a holiday when they found their front door kicked in. The entire house and garage was searched.

The raid was apparently sparked by the smell of a tiny creeping flower called Moss Phlox that grew in their garden. The plant smells like and is often mistaken for pot.

This was the second time this happened. A similar incident occurred four days earlier to Ivor’s neighbors David and Christine Difford.

The couple was visited by a gang wearing Halloween masks who demanded drugs.

“They shouted, ‘Give us the weed, man’ and searched the loft. It was frightening,” David narrated.

Police later apologized to Ivor, a retired engineer, who showed them the smelly plant. The offending plant apparently didn’t bother Ivor since he has no sense of smell.

If you like weird flowers, you’ve come to the right place. In this article – the second of a series – you’ll find another odd plant that will make your garden unique.

Introducing the Titan Arum which is also known as the “corpse flower” or “corpse plant.” Not to be confused with the other corpse flower that I discussed previously, the Titan Arum or Amorphophallus Titanum is a flowering plant that holds the distinction of having the largest unbranched inflorescence or compound flower in the world.

The plant was christened “Titan Arum” by the British broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough who thought that the name Amorphophallus was not appropriate for his TV viewers.

Discovered by the Italian botanist Odoardo Beccari in Sumatra in 1878, the Titan Arum grows in tropical rainforests and produces only a single flower every few years. The plant blooms a few times in its 40-year lifespan. But this is usually a major event that is crucial for the plant’s survival.

Are you looking for new and unusual plants for your garden? Are you hoping to find something that will stand out and make you the talk of the town?

Look no further for I have assembled this unusual collection of rare plants and flowers for your reading pleasure. Take your pick from this odd assortment and your garden will never be the same again!

For my first selection, you’ll have to travel deep in the rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo. There you’ll find the Rafflesia Arnoldii better known as the “corpse flower.”

Unlike other plants, the corpse flower has no noticeable leaves, stem or roots. This parasite lives on the Tetrastigma vine which also grows in rainforests. Like fungi, it gets water and other nutrients from its host. What makes the plant unique is the fact that it produces the largest individual flower on earth. The flower is huge – over three feet across – and has a reddish-brown color.

It has a hole in the center that can hold about seven quarts of water. Its moniker comes from the fact that it stinks of rotting flesh much like a corpse. The bad smell attracts flies that pollinate the plant.

If you have a bizarre taste in plants, I guarantee that this variety – the third in our series – will be to your liking.

The Welwitschia Mirabilis looks like an alien life form from a science fiction movie. It has a short thick trunk and only two leaves that grow continuously throughout the entire life of the plant.

The leaves can grow to a length of two to three meters and are split into several sections. The stem normally gets thicker than higher although it can grow to six feet high and 24-feet wide.

The long leaves of the plant are equipped with special structures that absorb water from the dew that forms during the night. Both male and female species of the plant produce nectar that attracts insects thus aiding in fertilization.

This tongue-twister is found mainly in the Namib desert in southwest Africa. It’s considered a living fossil since it has existed since the Jurassic period.

With that in mind, you never have to worry about losing this plant. The Welwitschia will keep you company for ages since it lives for 1,000 to 2,000 years – more than people do. That makes it a good conversation piece that you can hand down from generation to generation.

After years of searching, you’ve finally found your soul mate. It wasn’t easy at first but you did it.

As your wedding day approaches, however, you’re afraid – very afraid. The reason? You might go overboard on your decorating budget and spend the rest of the month eating at 7-11!

Fear not for I have the answer. Below are some tips to help you save money on flowers courtesy of Meredith Waga Perez, owner of NYC’s Belle Fleur.

Flowers are nice to look at and make any wedding special. But filling vases with expensive flowers can cost much. To get the same effect without spending much, float three flower heads in a crystal bowl. This will impress people and save you a bundle.

Want your bride to walk on roses like a queen? Or looking for something to scatter at tables to accent those lovely candlesticks? Instead of going for full blossoms, use rose petals.

Perez said 15 roses will give you about 200 petals – which is a good amount to begin with. For a bigger bargain, buy roses by the pound and walk like a god!

Flowers are valued for their beauty, fragrance and they joy they give to those who receive them. Indeed, nothing conveys the whole spectrum of human emotions as well as flowers – the reason why almost everyone loves them.

However, these symbols of love, friendship and beauty can be deadly too. That’s because many flowers that you find outside – and sometimes inside your home – can be dangerous. It’s not uncommon to find poisonous flowers around you so it’s better if you know what you’re dealing with.

Although plants are not the main reason for poisonings reported throughout the world, they are responsible for many cases of unintentional poisonings, especially among children.

“Surveys of calls to Poison Information Centers in Germany and the United States show that ingestion of plants is responsible for a significant number of calls (10 percent of all inquiries), but that serious poisonings are rare. Plants were responsible for five percent of pediatric poisoning cases seen in Finnish hospitals and 28 percent of calls to a poison information center,” according to Michael Eddleston of the Center for Tropical Medicine, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford in England, and Hans Persson of the Swedish Poisons Information Center in Stockholm, Sweden.

Have you ever wondered why that lovely flower you’re holding smells good? Believe it or not, this is a natural mechanism that’s important to the plant’s survival.

We spray perfume on our bodies to smell good and attract members of the opposite sex. In a way, this is what flowers do.

Like humans, flowers need to reproduce or face extinction. They do this by producing pollen grains that need to reach other flowers. This is where pollination comes in.

Pollination is the process where pollen is transferred from one flower to another for the sexual reproduction of plants. This is accomplished in two different ways.

In abiotic pollination, pollination is done without the help of other organisms or pollinators. This is accomplished mostly by the wind (a process called anemophily) that carries the pollen to other plants. Another form of abiotic pollination is hydrophily or pollination by water which is common in aquatic plants.

Abiotic pollination occurs in only 20 percent of plants. Of that number, anemophily accounts for 98 percent of pollination while two percent is by hydrophily.

Are you having a hard time smelling that beautiful rose you just bought? Even if you don’t have a bad cold, smelling flowers can be difficult these days due to years of selective breeding that have diminished their scent.

Fortunately, a group of scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has solved that problem. They’ve found a way to enhance the scent of flowers and implant a scent in those that don’t have one.

In fact, they can even make flowers smell good day and night regardless of the plant’s natural way of producing scent.

In an article published in the Plant Biotechnology Journal, Professor Alexander Vainstein and his research assistant Michal Moyal Ben-Tzvi reported that they have managed to enhance the scent of flowers by tenfold and cause them to emit a scent at different times of the day.

Vainstein, who heads the team at the Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment at the above university, said this development is not only important to flowers that rely on scent to attract pollinators but will help boost the appeal of commercial fruits and vegetables.