I pick up new interests, or renew old interests, rapidly throughout the year. At the moment I am all about greenery. More specifically houseplants.
I grew up in a home where there has always been things growing. Everything from lemons, apples, poppies and oats grown from the pantry sneakily put into my mother’s pots by a curious little budding gardener (me) to large indoor trees like benjamin ficus.
There is something about stepping into a home filled with plants that have been loved and cared for for a while (as opposed to homes filled with plants temporarily for the sake of taking pictures). Perhaps it is that they are alive, and thriving, telling the story of love. Perhaps it is just the fact that they clean the air. I’m not sure. The only thing I do know is that I’ve always loved plants and am very pleased to see that some of my childhood favourites are gaining in popularity.
As an owner of cats that are nearly as fond of plants as me, however, finding plants that they don’t like and aren’t poisionous to them in case they should take a liking to them is always an issue. My home is therefore nearly devoid of plants.
The only plant they’ve not nibbled so far is my peperomia “polybotrya”. It is a wonderful plant, in many ways similar to the ever popular pilea peperomioides in the way it grows.
The calatheas that I keep bringing home my cats keep eating up. Though there is hope for the one in the bathroom, since despite having been grazed to near extinction it is now starting to look green and lush again. It is almost as if the cats have lost interest in it, I can but hope that is the case.
My new strategy this month is to overwhelm the cats with choices, so many that even if they nibble a bit here and a bit there the plants might survive the onslaught. Oh, and to give them some plants they are allowed to chew on, though knowing cats those will be the ones they’ll ignore completely.
So, with that said, this is a list of plants that are supposedly cat safe, or just mildly irritating if chewed that I am bringing home this month. Keep in mind, however, that I’m no expert and that cats, just like humans, can be allergic to substances that others are not and that if your cat eats a whole ficus you probably want to rush them to the vet because mildly irritating in small amounts might be toxic in larger amounts:
– Rexbegonia. I found a lovely version called Beleaf Inca Flame with red leaves with silver veins. This plant is mildly toxic, but since the toxins seem to be in the roots it is listed as safe for cats on Swedish pages.
– Calatheas of all sorts.
– Peperomias of all sorts.
– Hoya “obavata”
– Coleus of all sorts.
– Pelargonium graveolens “Dr Westerlund”.
– Ficus elastica “burgundy”
– Chlorophytum comosum. It is often recommended to grow this one for your cats, so they have something they are allowed to nibble besides cat grass.
I’ll update this list as I bring home more plants. I hope that overwhelming them with choices might work.
/Camilla
findingmyowntwofeet 