House Plants?

Do any of you have house plants? I love taking care of plants and many years ago BC (Before Cats), my house looked like a greenhouse with plants everywhere. Since we became fur-parents, though, no plants.The cats won't let them alone. They use the leaves for snacking and for meals, they don't allow them in window sills and they like to "play" with them. I gave up.

I do have plants in my office, though. I figure that I spend a lot of time here, so I might as well make it a comfortable as I can. And it seems that many people like to come into my office to sit and visit. They all remark on the plants and how nice my little cube is....it's really a cube, not a full-fledged office.

Sometimes I take on a plant just for the challenge. A few months back, my MIL gave me an avocado pit and I decided to try to root it. I used to have a few avocado plants, again BC (Before Cats), so I knew they're easy to grow. It's a beautiful plant now, about ten inches tall with a lush growth of leaves. My latest challenge, as of this week, will be caring for a pointsettia that was leftover from the holidays. There were several around the building and they were going to be thrown out, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I used to be able to winter over geraniums and impatiens plants in my basement, although I know that a pointsettia is more difficult, not to care for, but to get it to bloom again....that's the key.

Do you have plants in your home? And how do your cats behave around them?

I wish I could have plants, but the girls even go after cut flowers no matter how high up I try to put them.

The closest to keeping houseplants that I can get is wintering over some various cacti and geraniums in the basement.

I have a couple african violets in the gecko room. They're safe from the cats in there.

I have a lemon tree, chosen because I like lemons and the tree is nontoxic. I still have to keep it in its own room, however, because somehow I know that the tree and Daisy won't mix .

I brought my 3 plants with me when i moved from PA to CA, and unfortunately only 1 is still with us. Not cat related though. No, I killed Betsy the Gardenia when i went on vacation 2 years ago and didn't drown it enough beforehand. And just a few months ago my African Violet Robert decided he had enough, and just shriveled up overnight!

My coffee plant George is still going strong, I've had him about half my life now, 14 years! When I moved to CA, after a year he actually bloomed for the first time ever, and I got a coffee cherry! The beans were gross and stank, either they just do before you roast them or I left it too long before picking it. There are a few more this year so maybe I can do something with them, at least try to grow another plant? Yeah, they call me Juanita Valdez...

One thing about George though is a lot of his leaves have brown edges, and I don't know why. He's not dry, if anything I might be watering too much. Any thoughts? He is otherwise healthy, keeps growing takker and fuller, just the brown bits...

Oh and Genever doesn't bother with the plants. (knock on wood!) Yay!

I have 2 in the living room--they are peace lilys
3 in the kitchen--no idea what they are.
and my daughter has some in her room...from Karri's funeral
neither cat bothers ANY of them.

My cats love plants - they're delicious! And they are in dirt, too!

We have a cat proof, umm....for lack of a better way of putting it giant terrarium. It's in a room we can shut the cats out of if we need to. There are several on top of a 5' high cabinet, too.

Otherwise, no plant survives here.

I have cat grass Nothing else would survive

I have a marble queen ivy up here at work. It's not huge yet since I bought it about a month ago. My boss has an ivy (golden pothos) that's about 15 years old and its HUGE. It's like 10 feet long.

At home I have a zz plant (is awesome if you want something to neglect and it will thrive and looks cool) 3 ivys, some christmas cactuses and a paperwhite and amaryllis I planted a few months ago. My philodendron didn't like where it was and the bottom of the stalks died so I hacked it off and put the ends in water. I hope it grows roots so I can replant it and save it. I had a rubber plant(was a beautiful ficus sylvie) that was thriving and all the sudden I guess it got too cold and the leaves started falling off one by one. Luckily Home Depot has a 1 year guarantee and will take back any dead plant as long as you have a receipt. I need to go get my money back. I'd love another rubber plant but I don't want to kill another. Has anyone had luck with these?

My cat leaves the plants alone. Shes more interested in plastic bags, paper bags and boxes. As of last night I was loading up the dishwasher and had a paper grocery bag on the ground..she decided to crawl in it and lay down. Silly kitty.

38. That's 38 plants inside our two bedroom apartment. Plus I keep 3 in the outside halls. Holy smokes, I knew I had a few but hadn't ever counted them before!
Through trial and error, I've learned which plants the cats will leave alone and which they destroy. So now I have mostly large or rounder leaf plants and avoid long spikey-leafed ones. They love getting their teeth into a nice long leaf and ripping it through. Pushkin also enjoys rubbing his face against a nice sharp cactus.

Oh yeah I forgot about my cactuses!! I got one of those kiddy grow a cactus kit things almost 2 years ago, they gave you a bunch of seeds. Well I have 6 cacti out of like 50+ seeds, there were 3 varieties including the giant cactus. They all look the same and are still about 1cm tall/round, or if you count the needles they're maybe 2 cm round. Haha, I don't know what variety they are supposed to be or when they might grow more, but... wow they are SLOW!

Our cats won't leave any plant - especially cut flowers - alone either. If someone sends flowers, we give them to the neighbors.

I have a friend that rescues plants though. No alpha problems, no fighting, no plants jumping on her in the middle of the night... (but no snuggles, either. ).

I have a number of herbs in the sunny kitchen window that are ok and some more exotic ones in the living room. My cats don't seem to bother them.

I have about 50 I'm overwintering in the basement and Bobs likes munching on the grassy ones. My cat grass won't be edible for a couple of days yet.

So I guess I'm pretty lucky!

Originally Posted by strange_wings

I have a couple african violets in the gecko room. They're safe from the cats in there.

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I have lots of plants in the reptile too.

My dogs never have bothered them much, even as puppies since they can be trained but the darling kitty sure does! Can't keep that kitty off the counters either. Sigh.
Maybe you could get some plants and buy several SSS Cats.

I too used to have a lot of plants...kinda B.C.They were really pretty,and apparently quite yummy!Cats 1...houseplants 0 !

Be very careful of which indoor plants you grow. Many are poisonous to cats & diogs. All parts of the poinsettia are deadly. Other plants are safe to grow. Do an Internet search for poisonous house plants. You will be surprised. I used to have a lot of plants; but haven't added any as Kato would knock them. I tried catnip and it died and the grass I grew, he ate the dirt.



this cat belong to one of the workers at the RV park. Kato was friendly with it when the cat came inside and pushed Kato away from his food, I put a stopped to it.

I can't have any plants, real OR fake, around my house. (Yes, they even eat the silk plants.) I can sometimes have herbs growing indoors (NOT catnip! --that's just asking for trouble!). I found mine aren't nuts about rosemary, and pretty much leave it alone. When DH brings me roses, I either have to put them in the bathroom, and close the door (and keep reminding everyone to close the door after them), or take them to work, to put on my desk (kinda embarrassing, as I wonder if my co-workers think I'm bragging that DH gives me flowers on non-holidays).

I did buy some lovely hanging baskets of strawberry plants at Home Depot last winter--they had such pretty little pink or white flowers (the pink had a slight aroma), and came in a cheerful, red plastic hanging basket. I hung them in my kitchen, dining room, and study. I don't think the leaves are toxic (double-check this); I only hang plants whose parts, should they drop down onto the floor, wouldn't harm the cats. I later planted them outside. they really cheered the place up in cold weather! So, you may wish to consider hanging plants. I know how you feel--I'm a gardener, and miss greenery during the Fall and winter months.

I'm thinking about getting a Meyer lemon plant, which will grow indoors, then go outside in warmer weather. Are citrus leaves toxic?

it has been a long time since I study the list, here is a link for poisonous plants
http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/poison...FSIjagodARezig

Originally Posted by WELDRWOMN

I wish I could have plants, but the girls even go after cut flowers no matter how high up I try to put them.

The closest to keeping houseplants that I can get is wintering over some various cacti and geraniums in the basement.

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Same with me sadly. I can't have any plants or flowers around. Trout got very ill and I almost lost her because of a bouquet of flowers once. I will not ever have plants in my home again.

I do have them in my office though

I grow orchids, and they fared quite well with the cats. I had about 30 in the house at one time. The only times we had a few caualties was when we were watching kittens and they knocked a few of them off the shelves!

The one plant that suffers the most is my poor money tree! Our cats will not leave the leaves alone!!!!!! I have to keep the poor little thing outside now! I guess I just have to get a nice big one so they cant get up to the leaves to torture them!

And for those of you who are unfamilliar with a money tree they look like this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachira_aquatica

They truly are a beautiful plant! And edible, although i think they are too pretty to eat!