With all the impact that climate change has made on pet friendly gardeners like us, the quest to plant native plants is more popular that ever. Native plants have adapted to our soils and climate; and in California’s case, that means drought resistant. Californians are fortunate that have a wide array of of beautiful plants that are very low maintenance once established.

The following list consists of flowers and plants that undergo the same scrutiny that all of our lists undergo: they have been verified with the ASPCA website list of nontoxic versus toxic plants and do extensive internet research for both the common and scientific name just to be super pet safe. If we cannot find direct reference, we check up to genus and so on until we can confirm whether a plant is toxic or non toxic to either cats or dogs. If we are not sure, or get contradictory information, we do not include it. Many of the plants featured we have grown successfully in our own pet safe garden in the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California. You can see many of our garden stars in photos from Lovie’s Pet Safe Garden.

31 Dog-Friendly & Cat-Friendly California Native Plants:

The following is a list of California plants that are safe for dogs, cats and horses.

California Pitcher Plant
California Hemlock
California Native Camellia
Hagbrier
Haws
Haws Apple
Hawthorn
Hemlock Tree
Mahonia
Moss Campion
Moss Fern
Moss Phlox
Mossy Campion
Mountain Camellia
Mountain Grape
Mulberry Bush Greenbrier
Mulberry Tree
Nasturtium
Nerve Plant
Night Blooming Cereus
Oregon Grape
Red Hawthorne
Red Maple
Red Veined Prayer
Roosevelt Fern
California Pitcher Plant
California Spider Fern
California Sunflower
California Tree Poppy
Weeping Bottlebrush
Whitman Fern