Numerous health benefits come along with filling your home with eye-catching houseplants, beautiful blooms, and of course, our comforting and loving fur babies. While prioritizing your own mental health, it is important to be sure that the health of your botanicals and plants is also balanced. This requires doing some research and filling your home with flowers and plants that are not harmful to pets as well as ensuring that furry paws can’t disrupt your botanicals. To get started, your animal-loving friends here at Conklyn’s Florist, the best flower shop in Alexandria, have created a guide to our favorite pet-friendly plants and flowers.
Safe Plants & Flowers for Pets
Spider Plant
With a fun nickname like “cat’s whiskers,” spider plants fit right into our list of pet-approved plants. Since their non-toxic grassy leaves grow to look like large whiskers of a cat, few pets can resist the temptation to bat and bite them as they walk by. While generally safe for pets, some furry felines can experience an upset stomach if they snack on a spider plant. Luckily, these plants are perfect for hanging as their leaves create a whimsical look for your home and can be hung out of reach for our four-legged friends.
Haworthia / Echeveria
If you love succulents, (and who doesn’t?), then rest assured in knowing that if you pick up an Echeveria or Haworthia plant, your furry friends will be safe. Just make sure that Jade plants, Aloe Vera, and Kalanchoe succulents are kept far away from your cats and dogs.
Polka Dot Plant
A great houseplant for its colorful leaves, the Polka Dot plant grows well in an area with indirect light but develops the best color when in lower light situations. The leaves have a sprinkling of dots making them very decorous but never toxic – as polka dot plants are safe for pets.
Gerbera Daisies
A cheerful and bright bloom ready to elevate even the gloomiest of days, similar to the sunflower, are gerbera daisies. These non-poisonous flowers grow in an array of brilliant hues, including purple, red, pink, orange, yellow, and white. While common daisies and chrysanthemums prove to be toxic to dogs and cats, gerbera daisies are a safe and great alternative for pet-friendly homes. Since they can thrive for a long time in a vase, they are sure to have you and your fur babies feeling uplifted and happy for days to come.
Snapdragons
A lovely and colorful annual for your backyard garden, this bloom also looks great in a floral arraignment with other buds or in a vase just by themselves. The charming, frilly flowers of the snapdragon grow in a wide array of colors and are non-toxic to your pet.
How to Protect your Pets from Toxic Plants & Flowers
To protect your pets from harmful plants, stick the ones listed above that are safe for pets. Besides this, the best course of action is to keep your plants in a screened or cordoned-off area of your home. Even if a plant isn’t toxic to Fido or Fluffins, you still want to protect the plant from your furry friends, too. Hang them high in a planter, place them on top of bookshelves, or in a place that is out of reach to playful paws and over-enthusiastic puppies.
