Bottle Brush plant

[Rexie]

Thinking of planting these for chewing/fun. Does anyone have any feedback on if they like them. I planted roses and mine is not impressed......

[stepnstone]

Thinking of planting these for chewing/fun. Does anyone have any feedback on if they like them. I planted roses and mine is not impressed......
I'm reading conflicting information on this plant but evidently there are different
types of bottle brush. Depending on type some say it's toxic while others say
squirrels love the nuts from them in the fall. You will need to research the type
you are thinking of using to see if it's considered safe or not.

[Rexie]

Ok thanks, not worth the chance. I grow hibiscus and mulberry but he is getting tired of it. He totally loves the tender oak leaves but those are all grown out now. Do you have any recommendations????

[Lighten-Up]

Ok thanks, not worth the chance. I grow hibiscus and mulberry but he is getting tired of it. He totally loves the tender oak leaves but those are all grown out now. Do you have any recommendations????

If you have room for a large tree a Linden might be nice. They have a soft wood, but they also produce tons of tiny flowers (not showy-but smell fabulous) which produce little seeds that I call "nutlets" (my term). Dirr's Manual refers to their fruit as "a nutlike structure", so I am not far off. :-) Wild squirrels love to forage these. I have given my pre-release squirrels Linden branches, in all stages (with and without the nutlets), and they are a favorite. Not as high ranking as oak, but still fun as they can eat the tender leaves (people can too), though they have just a little fuzz on them and so may not be enticing to humans.

The nutlet fun would be much later than the tender oak leaves, so it would give him another season of something interesting.

Tilia americana is the scientific name, it is a popular landscape tree, but please note, can grow to 60-80 feet. I looked it up and it says it is native in Texas.