PLANTS AND PET COMPANIONS. HOW TO CHOOSE ONE THAT WON’T KILL THE OTHER

Classic houseplant tips, like macrame hangers and grandma’s spider plants, can help.

The millennial love of house plants and their equal devotion to their pets is summed up in the number one question that Eric Gibson hears from visitors to his Edmonton plant shop.

Will this one kill my fur-baby?

“People who come in, are most concerned about toxic plants. Like, it’s our number one question: I don’t want to poison my little four-legged friend so help me find plants that are going to be low-maintenance and safe for our pets.”

As it turns out, a few classic houseplant trends are keys to the safe co-existence of plants and pets in the residential jungle.

Species like ferns, spider plants and the easy-to-grow hoya vine – “the ones your grandma has had for 30 years” – are pet-safe. 

As well as, plant stands, terrariums and the macrame plant hanger, a favourite of the 1960s and ’70s, are great techniques for keeping plants out of nibbling range, he added.

Preferred plants

Gibson attributes the millennial love of plants and pets to growing environmental consciousness combined with slower forays to buying homes and having families.

“Millennials are definitely jumping on board,” he said. “It’s an inexpensive hobby where they just surround themselves in a jungle…”

“A lot of the trendy ones are toxic, like fiddle leaf figs and monsteras. But there’s tons like peperomias, the Chinese money plant and the watermelon peperomia, that are safe,” he said.

Other pet safety tips include quarantining new plants – even if they’re non-toxic – for a number of weeks, away from pets, to allow the pesticides to break down, as well as picking up some safe snackers like cat grass or catnip.