Pet Friendly Houseplants: How to Choose Plants for a Home With Cats and Dogs
🐾 Pet Friendly week: 15% off the whole Pet Friendly collection until Sunday 11 October. No code needed (Pet Friendly Pack not included).
If you share your home with a cat or a dog, you've probably looked at a plant in a shop and wondered: is this a good idea? It's a fair question, and the honest answer is that some plants are a much better fit for pet homes than others.
In our catalogue, we mark certain plants as pet friendly to make that choice easier. This guide walks you through them, from colourful Calatheas to easy palms and trailing plants that can live out of paw's reach, plus a few simple habits that make life with plants and pets calmer for everyone.
🐾 What "pet friendly" means in our catalogue
When you browse WePlant, you'll see some plants marked as pet friendly. It's a label we use to help you find plants that are a better fit for homes with cats and dogs, so you don't have to research every plant name on your own before choosing. You'll find them all together in our Pet Friendly collection.
What the label isn't is a promise that nothing can ever go wrong. Plants are living things, pets are curious and every home is different. So we like to think of "pet friendly" as a smart starting point, the shortlist you begin with, rather than the end of the conversation.
🩺 Why we still say: check with your vet
Every animal is different. Some cats ignore plants completely; others treat every new leaf as a toy. Some dogs will chew anything at nose height. And even a plant marked as pet friendly can disagree with a pet that nibbles on it a lot, in the same way a new food sometimes does.
Your vet knows your animal: its age, its health and its habits. If you have a very curious pet, a young puppy or kitten, or you're simply unsure, a quick question at your next check-up is the easiest way to feel confident about the plants you bring home. It's a small step, and it means you can enjoy your plants without second-guessing.
🎨 Colour without compromise: Calatheas and Marantas
If you think pet friendly means plain, meet the prayer plant family. Calatheas and Marantas have some of the most striking leaves you can grow indoors, and many of them are marked as pet friendly in our catalogue.
- Calathea Orbifolia has large, round leaves with soft silver stripes. It's a real statement plant for a living room.
- Calathea Medallion looks almost hand-painted, with deep green and purple tones.
- Calathea Lancifolia, often called the rattlesnake plant, has long, wavy leaves with dark spots.
- Maranta Lemon-Lime brings bright lime-green stripes to a shelf or side table.
One of their loveliest habits: their leaves move through the day and fold up in the evening, which is where the name "prayer plant" comes from.
Care in a nutshell: bright indirect light, soil that stays lightly moist but never soggy, and a little extra humidity. Keep them away from radiators and cold draughts.
🌴 Easy palms for a tropical feel
Palms are the quickest way to make a room feel lush, and three favourites are marked as pet friendly in our catalogue.
- Areca Palm has feathery, arching fronds and loves a bright spot.
- Parlour Palm (Chamaedorea elegans) is compact and happy with less light, so it suits hallways and bedrooms.
- Kentia Palm (Howea forsteriana) grows slowly and elegantly, perfect as a larger floor plant.
Palms like bright indirect light and a drink when the top few centimetres of soil feel dry. A heavy pot helps too; more on that below.
🌱 Small plants for shelves and desks
Not every home has room for a big palm. These smaller plants bring plenty of personality to a shelf, a windowsill or a desk.
- Pilea Peperomioides, the pancake plant, with round leaves on slim stems. Happy plants send up little baby plants you can pot up and share.
- Peperomia Hope has small, rounded, slightly succulent leaves that trail gently over the edge of the pot.
- Peperomia Prostrata, also known as string of turtles, has tiny patterned leaves that look like little shells.
- Iresine Herbstii brings a splash of deep burgundy and pink, lovely next to green plants.
Most of them prefer bright indirect light and don't like sitting in wet soil, so water when the top of the soil has dried out.
🪴 Hanging plants that live out of reach
Hanging your plants is one of the easiest ways to share a home with a curious pet. They look beautiful, save space and stay well away from paws and noses.
- Hoya Mathilde has trailing stems and thick, glossy leaves, and may reward you with clusters of star-shaped flowers.
- String of Hearts (Ceropegia woodii) has delicate trailing stems covered in heart-shaped leaves.
- Tillandsia Ionantha is an air plant that needs no soil at all, so you can display it in a hanging glass globe or on the wall.
A tip for cat owners: cats are brilliant climbers, so a hanging planter usually works better than a high shelf.
🌿 Ferns with personality
Ferns bring a soft, relaxed feel to a room, and these three are marked as pet friendly in our catalogue.
- Phlebodium Blue Star has blue-green, wavy fronds and copes well with lower light.
- Staghorn Fern (Platycerium bifurcatum) grows fronds shaped like antlers and can even be mounted on a wall.
- Bird's Nest Fern (Asplenium nidus) has glossy, bright green fronds that unfurl from the centre like a nest.
Ferns love humidity, which makes them a great choice for bright bathrooms and kitchens.
✨ Simple habits for a happy plant-and-pet home
A few small habits make living with plants and pets calmer for everyone:
- Start with plants marked as pet friendly. It's the easiest first filter.
- Choose heavy, stable pots. A wide ceramic pot is much harder to knock over than a light plastic one.
- Use height wisely. Hanging planters, wall mounts and tall stands keep tempting leaves out of reach.
- Tidy fallen leaves. A leaf on the floor is an open invitation to play.
- Watch the first few days. When a new plant arrives, notice how your pet reacts and move it if it gets too much attention.
- Check with your vet if you're unsure, especially with young or very curious pets.
Plants and pets both make a house feel like home, and with a little planning you really can have both.
Browse our Pet Friendly collection to find your next plant. 🐾
