Help me identify these flowers!

May 2, 2015 6:22 PM

My sweet, long-distance boyfriend sent me a surprise bouquet of flowers! The flowers are beautiful, but I want to make sure that they're safe for my cat, Ada. I don't think they're unusual flowers, but I know basically nothing about plants, so I would like some help identifying them. Photos inside!

Flowers 1, 2.

Here is a list of the flowers:

• red: roses
• large pink: lily?
• large green: unopened lilies?
• white: hydrangeas?
• light purple: no clue

He doesn't know what the flowers are, either, because he just asked the florist to put together something that looks nice. :-)

Here's the cat in question.

posted by tickingclock to Home & Garden (13 answers total)

Best answer: All your guesses are right on! The purple ones are chrysanthemums.
posted by gone2croatan at 6:29 PM on May 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Large pink and unopened are lilies and toxic to cats, as is the water lilies sit in. Ditch those and change the water in the vase! The purple are gerber daisies, I think.
posted by ersatzkat at 6:29 PM on May 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: The white ones could be viburnum.
posted by feets at 6:55 PM on May 2, 2015

Best answer: Yes, lilies are notoriously very bad for cats. At least one local vet here has a poster specifically warning about lilies.

For less-toxic plants and flowers (but still slightly toxic), you can try spraying them with Bitter Apple spray, but lilies are too toxic to risk that not working. Sorry.
posted by amtho at 7:03 PM on May 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: All right, but I don't think the purple ones are gerber daisies. They're just daisies.
posted by Pearl928 at 8:03 PM on May 2, 2015

Best answer: For the record, roses are _not_ toxic to cats, and also I think snapdragons are safe. When kittens are in the house, it's classy roses (or snapdragons) or nothing.
posted by amtho at 9:23 PM on May 2, 2015

Best answer: Lilies will destroy your cat's kidneys.
posted by Seppaku at 9:24 PM on May 2, 2015

Best answer: white ones are hydrangea, purple ones look like chrysanthemum (95% sure), closed green lilies look like they are asiatic or stargazer. i would never have lilies around a cat. here is one link for more information.
posted by puellaeterna at 9:28 PM on May 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: The photos won't load for me, but chrysanthemums are also toxic to cats, so be careful with those, too.
posted by jaguar at 9:51 PM on May 2, 2015

Best answer: Yes, be super careful with the lilies. My boyfriend bought a similar arrangement for me as a valentine's gift. I kept the arrangement out of kitty's reach, but they started dropping lily petals as the flowers started to wilt. My Nimbus got into them. Over $1500 in vet bills later, he is fine, but no more lilies will cross my threshold.
posted by weathergal at 1:53 AM on May 3, 2015

Best answer: Even one single brief exposure to lilies can kill a cat. Ours was hospitalized for two days after biting a dead petal that fell off a lily I was bringing out of a closed-off room. Don't take chances!!
posted by Cygnet at 5:37 AM on May 3, 2015

Best answer: The white ones are hydrangeas. They're fine.

Light purple are likely a variety of florist chrysanthemums. Dubious cat safety. Toss the lilies (green buds and the pink flowers) ASAfuckingP.
posted by lydhre at 7:17 AM on May 3, 2015

Response by poster: Thanks for your answers, everyone! I didn't know that lilies were so horrible for cats! Good thing I checked!

I cross-checked all the possible identifications with the ASPCA's list of toxic plants.

White ones:
Hydrangeas: not okay
Viburnum: could not find on ASPCA, but okay according to another site
I'm going to play it safe and assume that these are hydrangeas.

Light purple ones:
Chrysanthemum: not okay
Daisy: not okay [Are chrysanthemums and daisies the same? Some chrysanthemums look like daisies, but others don't?]
Gerber daisy: could not find, but probably not okay if a variety of daisy.

So basically, most of the bouquet is unsafe for little Ada. I'll give away the flowers to my roommates to keep in their rooms, where Ada is not allowed to go, and just hang on to the roses. I'll make sure to get new water for the roses, too, so they're not sitting in lily-water.

Thanks again!
posted by tickingclock at 9:26 AM on May 3, 2015