Know any tall narrow houseplant ideas?

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amccabe Marquette, MI Jan 08, 2010

I have a new home and am looking for a narrow tall houseplant which could be a tree, but not an evergreen. Also, it needs to be non toxic for cats. Does anyone have any ideas? My local florist unfortunately was not any help.

Angie

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plantladylin (Zone 1) Jan 08, 2010

Angie:

Unfortunately, many plants have some amount of toxicity to cats and or dogs. It's best to try to train your kitty to stay away from your house plants. We have had cats in our family for many years and I have always had a lot of plants. At times we've had one who liked to chew on plants and I had to really watch her closely and refocus her attentions elsewhere, but when we aren't home with our pets 24/7 it's kind of hard to deter them.

If you can train them from a young age to stay away from plants, they may not even pay attention to them in the future. You can try the "spraying with water" method to deter your cat from chewing on your plants. Get a plastic spray bottle and fill it with water and spray the cat whenever you see him go near a plant. Cats are very curious and like to check out anything new, plants included ... and they do like to "taste" plants sometimes. Here is a list of plants and the conditions they cause if ingested by cats: http://www.vetstreamfelis.com/ACI/December/VMD2/fre00800.asp

These are two house plants that I can think of right now that meet your size/height criteria, but with the exception that they are toxic, and a cat should not be chewing on the foliage.

The Sansevieria trifasciata: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=sansevieria+trifasciata&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=5mdHS9esKc2Xtgffg7XoAQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBwQsAQwAA gets to be about 4' tall and is narrow. They are easy to grow and seem to thrive on neglect.

Dracaena marginata: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/732/ can get pretty tall but can be pruned to keep at a manageable height. The lower leaves can be removed to keep a narrower shape.




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MichaelZ Portland, OR(Zone 8a) Jan 08, 2010

I've had a bay laurel for many years. It doesn't take up a lot of space, doesn't require a lot of attention and when a recipe calls for bay leaf...no problem. (see photo) I have a cat who has never shown any interest in it.

On a side note, I grow wheat grass and catnip for my cat and that does seem to help keep her away from my other house plants.

Another tree that I regularly grow inside is avocado. It is easy to train and after eating guacamole, why waste a good seed?

For fun I grew a chayote squash indoors last year. It is a vine and never flowered or produced fruit but it was a treat to watch it wind it's way around the room seeking light and warmth. Having sky lights was probably helpful in encouraging it to climb.

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