Plant people... need plant/cat advice

I was considering getting some plants for the house... nothing that requires a crazy amount of maintenance or anything... just something nice to have around.

But being that I have a black thumb I was hoping you guys could tell me what plants would be good to have in the house that would be harmless if one of the kitties decided to taste it.

... although no catnip or cat grass. I don't want them to learn to eat plants... but I'd like it to be harmless if they do it anyway.

Thanks!

I'm sure there are people out there who know plants much better than me... but I am going to try to grow herbs indoors. I have them outdoors right now but I will bring them in for the winter. If you want to try that, mint is a good choice... it smells great and it grows like weed.
I don't think there is any danger to cats and most cats hate the smell of mint anyway.

I think the peace lily is also harmless to cats and pretty easy to take care of.

I'll have to pull out my books on what's safe for cats again, but I have a Pony-tail Palm and it does great and is easy to care for. I had one when I was younger, and it did well. This plant never bothered any cats that I had around it, and some did try to eat it because of the way it grows. The big thing that you'll have to watch is cats trying to use plants as a litterbox. That's actually how my first PTP died. Smuckers did it.
I have a Ficus Tree, the PTP, and a basket with an assortment of plants in it that was from my grandmother's funeral. I need to separate them into their own planters, but haven't done it yet. Luckily, our cats don't mess with the plants too much.

Our cats know to stay away from the plants; we have a lot of plants before we had them but they rarely nibble on the flowers or the plants' leaves.

http://www.cfainc.org/articles/plants.html is one source of helpful do's and don'ts for cat people who want houseplants...good luck!

Spider plants are incredibly easy to grow, but you'll have to hang them up. Since they're grass like cats love them.
Luckily they're not poisonous if the cats do decide to sample.

I had spider plants in my house at one time and my cats ate them all down to the nub.

Was thinking Spider Plants too. But to be on the safe side, ALL my live plants are outside!

I'd go with that, too; although I do have one African violet and one plant someone referred to as Mother-In-Law Tongue (!) and they never go near either one.

Originally Posted by Tarasgirl06

I'd go with that, too; although I do have one African violet and one plant someone referred to as Mother-In-Law Tongue (!) and they never go near either one.

Click to expand...

Mother-in-law's tongue plants are poisonous to cats. We had some and the cats didn't bother them until Carly. When she started messing with them, we got rid of them.

Since I can't grow anything to save my life, we just have silk plants.

Mother-In-Law plant (dumb cane/dieffenbachia) is a bad one. Certainly would not allow that in my house at all, not even out of cat reach. Also because there's the chance I would do something stupid, like break a leaf moving it and accidentally wipe my eyes. A cat doesn't necessarily have to eat it to have problems.

Oh thank you for telling me! I wonder if I put mine outside on a high ledge, if it would survive.

I guess I'm lucky and my cats don't bother any of my inside plants. But in the winter when I bring my agave (and all the baby agave's) inside Bobber likes to rub on them!!

My cats don't really bother the plants either, but have heard that the peace lily plants are not good for cats. I have not had any problems with the spider plants, but then again my cats don't bother my indoor plants.

Originally Posted by strange_wings

Spider plants are incredibly easy to grow, but you'll have to hang them up. Since they're grass like cats love them.

Luckily they're not poisonous if the cats do decide to sample.

Click to expand...

Mine munch on them so much the spider plants have their own room. And the kitties have their "own" spider plant they are allowed to eat. The spiders propagate at such a rate that even if they were to kill them all off, I'd have so many seedlings it wouldn't matter... OH mine also adore marjoram. I don't know if it'll harm them (I doubt it, but still) so it's going in the kitty-safe room for the winter. They hate my mint and my thyme, so those might be good choices. Besides, the peppermint smells delicious and has exploding growth, so even if they did get at it I think you're safe.

All Orchids are safe, and I have managed to keep one alive for a month, so they'd be a safe bet. Nursery orchids are the best to get, though, as you can get great information from people who know what they are talking about.

ALL Lilies I have heard are toxic, and the Peace Lily is on the CFA list as toxic.....

As it is, I have several poisonous plants in my house (Asparagus Fern, Aloe Vera, a horde of African Vi's, etc etc) and the kitties don't bother them. When the asparagus fern was a baby, Emma and Chili loved eating it, and I never knew what it was then, so of course I didn't know it was poisonous--yes, it was dumb--but thankfully they only nibbled and never got sick. Now they leave it alone, they have absolutely no interest in it. The Vi's they never touch, period. They loathe them. The Aloe they were curious about but don't like either.. so I think if your kitties aren't overly interested and you don't have the plants in accessible places, you're good. On top of the fridge, hanging baskets, that sort of thing is good unless you have acrobats.

Stay away from anything that looks like cat grass, unless you WANT the cats to chew on them. Spider plants and ponytail palms don't last long at my place. Ginger thinks if it has long, skinny, pointed leaves, it MUST be good to eat.

I'd try succulents like the Rubber plant - cats tend not to chew fleshy leaves.

All of the plants stay outside. But when the weather gets bad, the little potted cactus comes inside. The kitties generally tend to leave that one alone!

Originally Posted by GingersMom

I'd try succulents like the Rubber plant - cats tend not to chew fleshy leaves.

Click to expand...

I was also going to suggest a succulent such as an aloe vera. But I need to first disagree with GingersMom for a second. I have to Have my Aloe vera up high because Neko likes to chew the fleshy leaves, but then at the same time I kinda have to agree with GM because Aloe vera leaves are long and pointy.

Aloe vera is great even for the black thumbed people. If you kill Aloe, I;m afraid to say, you just don't have thumbs fullstop.
I know some people will also try say, "well theres not much that can go wrong with Aloe vera plants except getting them too cold" this is so not true. There are dozens of ways to kill Aloe vera, and usually a person only ever does it once in a life time, if they even do it at all.

I like them coz they are a versatile plant, have many beneficial healing properties, they are absolutely beautiful and can last a very long time.

My

I found this site: http://www.cfainc.org/articles/plants.html
Looks like a lot of good info.