Dog-friendly plants for window with direct light but cold in winter?

October 30, 2017 4:55 PM

I'm looking for dog-friendly plants I can hang in my west-facing window in Brooklyn. It gets a LOT of light when the sun is out and can get uncomfortably warm in the late afternoon...but because it's a window, the glass/sill can get chilly at night and in the winter. Are there any plants that would thrive in these conditions? I'm willing to baby them a little, but I don't necessarily have the greenest of thumbs.
posted by Ragini to Home & Garden (13 answers total)

Pothos. These things are insanely easy to grow. I was watering my mom's plants over one winter (where the heat is permanently set at 62 degrees Fahrenheit) and noticed I had forgotten her pothos for two months. It was withered and yellow and sad. Hopefully but with real concern that I had committed a green murder, I watered the plant and it freaking sprang back to life after shedding all of its sad leaves. My brother once had a pothos that had leaves draped from the top of his dining room cabinet out through the dining room into the living room. He trimmed and threw away POUNDS of plant when he moved. My own pothos grew into the wall and started climbing it in a room where the window shades had never been opened. Pothos. You can do this!
posted by xyzzy at 5:57 PM on October 30, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: My spider plant sits next to a cold window all winter and it's huge. (Pothos is toxic to dogs.)
posted by ilovewinter at 6:03 PM on October 30, 2017 [2 favorites]

Aww, it is?! Sorry. I've had pothos around cats and dogs but none of them were particularly plant eaters.
posted by xyzzy at 6:30 PM on October 30, 2017

Best answer: Swedish ivy would be a good choice as well. It's not a true ivy, so it's totally safe for dogs. As a bonus, you can clip off any especially long trailers, stick a pencil in the dirt to make a hole, and insert the cut end of the trailer. It'll root so quickly that the leaves won't even have a chance to wilt.
posted by DrGail at 6:36 PM on October 30, 2017

Pothos, and spider plant are already listed, and are excellent hardy low-care indoor plants.

Also Sansevieria, Spathyphyllum.

Also consider angel wing begonias and fuchsias if you want more flower potential.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:46 PM on October 30, 2017

(Oh sorry: begonias are considered mildly toxic, especially the roots. But few dogs will dig up and eat potted plant roots, in my experience, and also few dogs will eat hanging basket plants period. If this dog is not a known plant devourer I would personally not worry much about hanging baskets)
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:56 PM on October 30, 2017

Second SaltySalticid's recommendations of Sanevieria and Spathyphyllum (which is called "the funeral plant" around our house) - we have both. The Spathyphyllum in particular lives in front of a sunny, but cold, window and gets whacked by dog tails all the time. It gets droopy, we water it, it lives! The thing has survived at least 3 years with dogs.

Also, I have a zz plant at work in front of a huge, cold window and the thing is indestructible. It once lived THREE MONTHS WITH NO WATER. And it looked exactly the same. I also find it particularly aesthetically pleasing, among house plants. Definitely get a zz plant.
posted by raspberrE at 7:30 PM on October 30, 2017 [1 favorite]

Aloe could work. Mine actually blooms due to the cold (they only flower if they get cold enough).

I've also had success with jade plants. They look very cute on a windowsill too!
posted by marfa, texas at 7:17 AM on October 31, 2017

Response by poster: Thanks y'all! Sounds like spider plants and Swedish ivy might be the winners for now. Bonus q: Does anyone have experience with bird's nest fern, staghorn fern, any of the peperomia varieties, or parlor palm under these conditions? I know some are low or indirect light plants.

Also, for the record, peace lilies (Spathyphyllum), ZZ plants, aloe, and jade (as well as pothos, as noted) are toxic to dogs. I totally hear you on dogs probably not taking a bite out of plants, especially hanging ones, but I only adopted my pup two weeks ago, so I'm sticking with non-toxic plants until she proves (or not) that she's not interested in plant-munching.
posted by Ragini at 8:12 AM on October 31, 2017

Best answer: Working on long reply to original q., but

I found bird's nest fern (Asplenium nidus) basically impossible indoors, and I would expect it to be even more impossible with wide temperature swings.

Never got the hang of staghorn ferns (Platycerium spp.) or parlor palms (Chamaedorea elegans) and have no idea what they want.

For me personally, most Peperomias were more trouble than they were worth (particularly P. caperata and P. argyreia), but Peperomia obtusifolia and P. pereskiifolia are both good, and I've even kept the latter in conditions similar to what you're describing.
posted by Spathe Cadet at 8:22 AM on October 31, 2017

Best answer: Hanging/vining/trailing, non-toxic to dogs, tolerant of temperature extremes in both directions.
(Note: it'd be helpful to know exactly how cold we're going, here: very very few houseplants can go below 50F/10C.)

All criteria met:
• Swedish ivy (Plectranthus verticillatus) would probably do well here, though it is possible to get them too cold, and the leaves will sometimes bleach a bit if sun/heat is too intense. If you can hang the plant with a substantial gap between itself and the window, both the extreme heat and extreme cold will be somewhat moderated.
• Chlorophytum comosum (spider plant, airplane plant, mala madre) is technically toxic according to some toxic-plant lists, but I'm not aware of any pets ever suffering anything worse than a little vomiting, and most don't even do that, so I'm inclined to treat it as safe.
• Cissus rhombifolia (grape ivy, oakleaf ivy) handles cool temperatures well, and seems flexible about light, but when I researched for a blog series about houseplant toxicity, I had trouble determining whether it was toxic or not. The sites that said it was poisonous didn't list consequences any worse than skin irritation, and many of them didn't even include that. I'm unsure how well it would do with very warm temperatures, and it's not the easiest plant I've ever attempted to grow, so I wouldn't go with it as a first choice, but it technically probably works. (Should note that there are varieties of English ivy, Hedera helix, which are called "oakleaf ivy," and Hedera is significantly toxic, so don't rely on the common name alone.)
• Strawberry begonia (Saxifraga stolonifera) should be good in this situation. Visually something of an acquired taste, and of course you have to forgive it for not being a strawberry or a begonia, but hey, it didn't name itself.

Suitable but for temperature:
• Aeschynanthus spp. (lipstick plant, goldfish plant) are supposed to be okay down to about 60F/16C. The vines get long, but the blooms are pretty. Down side: blooms also tend to be filled with sugary nectar, which will eventually drip onto your floor.
• Holiday cactus (Schlumbergera hybrids) are good to about 55F/13C. Might not be great in prolonged high temperatures, but they actually need cool temperatures to set buds, so your situation might be kinda perfect. Down side: turning plant often leads to bud drop. Needs pretty dark, long nights in order to set buds (the old heirloom "Christmas cactus" are terrible about refusing to set buds if there's even a little light in the evenings; the newer varieties are much better about it).
• I don't know how cold drunkard's dream (Hatiora salicornioides) can get for sure, but one site says they need to get down to 50-55F / 10-13C in order to set buds, so . . . at least that cold.
• Begonia cvv. are probably fine, in my estimation. Rex begonias are NEVER happy indoors (or outdoors, for that matter), so stick to the rhizomatous or cane begonias.
• Hoya spp. (wax flower) has been tricky for me to grow (they're fine right up until they suddenly, dramatically, aren't, and then it's too late to save them), and I don't understand why. But H. carnosa, H. bella, and H. lacunosa all fit your criteria, more or less. I'm unsure how cold they can go.
• Peperomia pereskiifolia works as far as I'm aware, though I would be hesitant to knowingly cool it below 60F/16C.

Suitable but for toxicity:
• Both Tradescantia pallida (purple heart) and T. zebrina (wandering Jew) do well in hanging baskets, are easy to care for, and are tolerant of any temperature that's likely to happen in your home. Neither is exactly toxic, but the sap is irritating to some animals and people. Since the plant and dog shouldn't be in contact anyway, and the toxicity isn't particularly grave, I think it's safe to recommend regardless, but it's something to be aware of.
• Rabbit's-foot fern (Davallia spp.) and hare's-foot fern (Phlebodium aureum) are both pretty easy to grow, and tolerate a little cooler than normal environments though probably not actual cold. I've had difficulty pinning down a toxicity in either case, though the sites I found that were willing to express an opinion came down on the side of safe.

Suitable but for habit:
• I know from personal experience that Crassula ovata (jade plant) can get snowed on and still survive. I still wouldn't put it on a cold windowsill, but that's more for fear of it rotting (a lot of succulents can handle cold, or wet, but not cold and wet).
• Beaucarnea recurvata (ponytail palm) looks like it should be toxic but apparently isn't. Might work if you're okay with something that grows really slowly. Above warning about cold + wet applies.

Other:
• Sansevieria trifasciata (snake plant) is toxic to cats, and I know someone personally who has lost a cat because it chewed on a Sansevieria. The information I've seen suggests that it's not as dangerous to dogs, and if it's in a hanging basket, the dog shouldn't be able to chew it anyway, so maybe it doesn't matter, but.
• Aloe spp., including A. vera, can cause vomiting, cramping, and diarrhea if eaten; I'd ask myself, how much dog diarrhea do I really want in my life? before going this route. Leaves do sometimes break off or drop off.
• Peace lily (Spathiphyllum cvv.) is, like most (all?) aroids, technically toxic, and can cause oral pain and swelling if eaten. (Other aroids include the otherwise-appropriate pothos, Epipremnum aureum; heart-leaf philodendron, Philodendron hederaceum; arrowhead vine, Syngonium podophyllum; and ZZ plant, Zamioculcas zamiifolia.)
posted by Spathe Cadet at 8:51 AM on October 31, 2017

Best answer: I couldn't keep the birds nest fern looking healthy. It never died, but it always looked sickly so I threw it away. The pepperomias I have are doing great. I also have a couple of wax plants (Hoya) which are non toxic to dogs. . They grow sloooowww but have been easy to keep alive.
posted by ilovewinter at 9:07 AM on October 31, 2017

Response by poster: Ah, so helpful! Thanks for pointing out that spider plants are actually toxic -- not sure what I was recalling there. I have a lot to work with here, everyone's answers are much appreciated!
posted by Ragini at 11:45 AM on October 31, 2017