Thank you to everyone who took our quiz! There was actually a tie for the most correct answers, congratulations to Forest Poodles and Lorna, who both got 12 right! I was impressed with how well many of you know your flowers. I had to do a random draw to declare the winner, and Forest Poodles got selected and won the grand prize of our fun garden flag and treats for her dogs. We decided to send Lorna a prize too since she also did so well! The winners have been contacted and their prizes will be on the way soon.
Now to the answers!
- Daylilies – Non-toxic. However, bear in mind Daylilies ARE TOXIC TO CATS. The interesting thing I discovered about this flower is that they are not “true lilies”. I was relieved to know these were safe for the dogs, since there are so many around, and inside the dog yard too.
- Clematis – Toxic. These flowers grow on a vine and are just gorgeous when they are all in bloom. Luckily for us, this plant is next to our front porch, which is not an area the dogs would be in off leash or unsupervised.
- Alyssum – Non-toxic. You may have noticed that these flowers that I planted in a pot are inside the dog yard. They are very fragrant and I want to thank our friend Ann at Pawsitively Pets for bringing them to my attention. Ann wrote a great post “What to Plant for a Dog Friendly Garden” I wanted to add some flowers in the dog area that the dogs wouldn’t trample, so I was looking for them when I went to the garden center.
- Chives – Toxic. Chives are in the onion family, and onions are also toxic to dogs. That plant there was inside the dog area but luckily was easy to move to behind the fence.
- Carolina Anemone – Toxic. This was one flower that really gave me a challenge to identify! I used my iPhone app to finally narrow it down and then the internet to finally track down that anemones are toxic to dogs. The ASPCA’s list is helpful, but they are up front about the fact that not all plants are on their list. I’m sure it’s hard to know every plant that is toxic, if no vet has ever seen a pet that they know got sick from it! I finally found it on Midtown Animal Clinic’s website. They have a good list that also tells the level of toxicity. These flowers are not highly toxic – they can lead to upset stomach and rashes, they are not deadly, but I still wanted them away from the dogs so we fenced them off. I have to watch them though….once in a while a new one will pop up in the dog area! They apparently spread quite well so I’ll always have to keep an eye on them.
This garden borders the deck next to the patio, and if you look closely you can see we had to get creative to keep the dogs from going over the hot tub and into the garden. - Hosta lily – Toxic. I had a lot of these at our old house, and there are a lot here too. I’ve always liked them because they are easy and will grown anywhere. Some here are in the fenced off area, some on other sides of the house; but I did have to dig some out of the dogs’ small overnight area. I knew from experience that it was going to be difficult, these plants have very strong roots and it was hard work! At the same time I also had to dig up lilies-of-the-valley which are also toxic, and just as hard to dig up.
- Lupine – Toxic. You could see in the original photo that this plant is in the barn foundation garden, as I call it, and away from the dogs. They are a very common flower that grows wild in many areas of our state, but I’ve never had any before now.
- Snapdragons – Non-toxic. Even though the photo might have fooled you because these are inside the small fenced garden, they are safe for dogs. They’ve always been one of my favorite flowers and I wanted some to fill in the dead area that was left when we removed the hydrangea bush.
- Geraniums – Non-toxic*. Thank goodness! I love these pretty flowers and there are a lot of them right by the patio! Not only are they beautiful, but they seem to hold up well to the dogs tromping across them and lying on them, as you saw in some previous photos. *IMPORTANT NOTE – These are “true geraniums” otherwise known as cranesbills. The flowers that we think of as geraniums – annuals that are seen in planters everywhere, are actually called “Pelargonium” and those ARE toxic to dogs. I always called those flowers “cemetery flowers” because when I was a child my mother always brought those to put on the graves when we visited the cemetery!
- Spiderwort – Non-toxic. No one could identify this flower, but I guess my photo wasn’t the greatest either. Even though this photo shows them in the barn foundation garden, there are some in the dogs’ area too. I had these at our old house and recognized the foliage right off, so was able to look these up early on to know they were safe.
We hope you enjoyed this quiz and that this information might help you with your own garden plans. Here are links to the first two parts in our series, if you missed them:
Part 1 – Are Your Plants Safe?
Part 2 – The Quiz
In subsequent posts I plan to share more toxic and non-toxic plants, more about levels of toxicity, herbs (Part 4), vegetables, and other aspects of gardening and how to keep it safe for your dogs.
Crazy, I never would’ve guessed chives of all things were toxic to dogs… they seem so innocuous. Then again, so do most things that are poisonous to our pets…
So true! I only wasn’t surprised by chives since I knew onions were toxic to dogs, and figured they were in the same family (even though they seem far different!).
Such great information! I’m glad you expanded on the geraniums because I thought that I had read somewhere that they were toxic and I think I even wrote a blog post about it because it shocked me!
You did write a post about it….it came up when I was doing my research! 🙂
That’s really useful information. I like the type of geraniums you’ve got, but I can’t stand the smell of pelargoniums.
I’m glad I found these geraniums, I really love them! I’ve never cared much for the pelargoniums and don’t even remember what they smell like, it’s been so long since I’ve had any. I’ll have to smell them next time I see some!
Sniff gently! They smell like too many cats have been there!
I actually did know the red geraniums were toxic. I quit planting them when we got dogs. We do have hostas, but the dogs like to pee on them and not chew them. lol
I never knew about the geraniums, but I never really liked them anyway. Which is probably because I associate them with cemeteries! LOL
Those geraniums don’t look like ours, but mom has them in pots that we can’t reach. But we pretty much don’t eat the plants just trample them. Great information! Love Dolly
Even though I don’t garden (not a huge flower person) – I love these posts. I need to know what flowers to stay away from with the Boys when we go exploring. Thanks again…
It’s always great to be aware, especially where you take your boys a lot of places where I’m sure they might have pots of flowers (not that you’d intentionally let them eat someone’s flowers – LOL).
This was awesome, thanks for this post, I know pretty much nothing about flowers. I have a few of the toxic ones I guess since I know know what they are but my dogs leave them alone so not to worried.
I think I started to worry the most when Luke came along, because he started right off with the grass eating and hasn’t slowed down yet!
Thanks for all this great info. It’s so hard to tell what’s safe & what isn’t, there’s no obvious commonality. I always learn onenor two new ones each year – this year’s newbie is the Hostas! I love these & we have lots around the house. Ugh.
Love & biscuits,
Dogs Luv Us and We Luv Them
Honestly, I still have a few plants around that I haven’t identified. All we can do is the best we can and keep trying to be aware.
I had such fun with this quiz! Thanks for teaching me a few things!
We are so glad you enjoyed it!
Good post. Mom is happy we don’t go after any plants
Lily & Edward
I need to put a higher fence up around some of my gardens to keep Pierre from lizard hunting. I like the way yours looks. ☺
Thank you! I got that nice black fence from Home Depot. It was really tough to find a fence that was tall and also only had small holes so Cricket couldn’t squeeze in there!
that was my first thought too as I read about non-toxic geraniums… our backyard would look empty without them… although this guys hang on a fence high enough even for easy :o)
Since we don’t have many plants we don’t have much to worry about. We do have those lily ones but only are interested in the stems when they are all dry and brittle.
Thanks for the answers. I really enjoy this series. Having a Labrador that eats everything I had to research the plants I have and also when I buy new ones.
It can sure be a lot of work figuring these things out, but our dogs are definitely worth it! I don’t remember our first Labrador (mix) eating a lot of plants, but it’s been quite a few years too. I guess Labs are notorious for this, since it wasn’t until Luke came along that I had to really start worrying about it.