Ammon News - The Poison Garden in Northumberland may only be a small garden, but its deadly plants means that the garden needs to be protected with heavy iron gates and warning signs.

A Northumberland garden has been dubbed 'the world's deadliest' as it is filled with poisonous plants that can kill you.

The Poison Garden only constitutes a small portion of The Alnwick Garden in Northumberland, however the garden lives up to its name and no one can visit it without a guide.


To prevent any unfortunate incidents occurring to wandering humans and pets, the garden is barred with huge iron gates and a sign under a skull and crossbones that says 'these plants can kill', the Mirror reports.

Visitors to the garden can only enter with an escorted guide and are prohibited from smelling, touching or tasting any plants. There have been cases where some unlucky tourists having fainted after inhaling the fumes while walking around.

The garden is home to around 100 'toxic, intoxicating, and narcotic' plants. These include the pretty blue flowers monkshood that not only creates deadly berries but also deadly leaves and stems.

Many of the plants, such as Laurel, produce cyanide, while giant hogweed is phototoxic, meaning it will burn skin and can give you blisters for up to seven years.

Like all open English gardens, The Poison Garden has to be maintained, meaning staff have to don hazmat suits just to tend to some of the more potent plants.

Opening up this unusual garden was the brainchild of the Duchess of Northumberland, who wanted to steer away from the typical herb gardens and go for a poison garden instead.

Head gardener, Trevor Jones, said of the garden's leafy residents: "They're very common plants. In fact, a lot of them are what we call cottage garden plants and they're grown in many people's gardens but people don't know how harmful they actually are.

"People are intrigued by poisonous plants and I'm often very worried when they come out because many of them will be growing these plants at home and they don't realise the powerful impact plants can have on us as humans."

*dailystar