Lively Root Review

I love a good houseplant, so when I heard about Lively Root plant delivery service, I was eager to shop, especially since I’d just moved into a larger home and had some empty shelves at the ready.

However, I had just gotten a new cat, so I needed to make sure any house plant additions were pet-friendly.

I browsed the Lively Root website and settled on the Medium Pet Friendly Urban Jungle bundle, a six-plant bundle of cat and dog-friendly plant species of varying sizes.

What is Lively Root?

Lively Root is an online plant store and delivery service with dozens of options, ranging from pet-friendly to best sellers to floor plants. Dangle plants, flowering and blooming plants, patio plants, subscriptions, bundles, pots, and wedding or housewarming plant gifts are all available for purchase.

Lively Root is comparable to The Sill and Bloomscape, both of which we’ve tested in the past.

You can place an order through Lively Root’s website or sign up for a subscription to get regular deliveries.

Plant bundle prices start at $130 and shipping takes roughly one week. Lively Root offers its 30 Day Happiness Guarantee, which means you can reach out to customer support within a month of your order date for a solution, in case your plants arrive dead or damaged. In some cases you may be able to get a refund.

How we tested Lively Root plant delivery service

The shipment took roughly one week to arrive in two separate deliveries on the same day. I got two 4-inch plants, two 6-inch plants, and two 10-inch plants (all measuring the diameter of the pot, not the height of the foliage).

Each plant includes a care card that details the plant species, ideal growing conditions like amounts of light and water, and listed several helpful tips to help the plants grow well.

The plants I ordered are all pet-friendly:

• Pachira braid money tree
• Neanthe bella palm
• Spider plant
• Areca palm
• Japanese aralia, fatsia japonica
• Pygmy date palm

Each plant came with a plastic grower pot housed in a fabric drawstring bag to keep the soil from getting everywhere, which I found useful for transport. I have since reused the bags for travel and shopping.

The plant bundle didn’t come with non-grower pots or soil however, so you’ll need to purchase those supplies separately.

What we like

The plants look and feel high quality

The plants arrived in great condition, securely boxed upright, covered with cotton bags, and all with bright green leaves and healthy roots. The plants absorb water well after being delivered, which shows they haven’t been en route for too long or were neglected before being packaged and shipped.

The care instructions are clear and easy to follow

I placed the plants around my house according to the care cards, making sure each plant got the recommended amount of sunlight and water over the course of five weeks.

From what I can tell, the plants are doing great. They continue to grow at a quick pace and don’t have any signs of rot or disease, though this can be attributed to good care and soil as much as the condition of the plants provided. The exceptions to this are the spider plant, which is a bit yellow (maybe due to excess water) and the larger palm, which is a bit scraggly on the lower fronds.

Pet-friendly plant bundles are available

Thankfully, the plants I tried, including the areca palm, are non-toxic to pets, because my sweet cat Rayla gave it a drastic haircut over the course of a few days.

The palm is doing better in a higher location away from my cat, but its growth isn’t as much as the other plants.

What we don't like

The (non-grower) pots are an additional purchase

I wish the bundle came with pots other than plastic grower pots, especially since the price of these plants is on the higher end for six medium-sized plants.

I had my own extra pots around the house, but I still needed to purchase several to accommodate the multiple sizes and make sure water could drain well.

Other services like Bloomscape include sturdy pots in a variety of colors that are included with the cost of the plants.

It’s not the most affordable way to buy plants

My main sticking point for this plant delivery service is the price. The plant bundle costs around $350, which surely seems like it should include nicer pots and probably extra soil. When I total up the price to buy the plants individually, it’s $75 more than the bundle.

I could have bought these same plants from a nursery or Lowe’s store for two thirds of the price. Lively Root is comparable to online plant shops like The Sill and Bloomscape, and from what is currently offered it has the largest plant bundles.

Should you try Lively Root?

No, the value is not worth it.

Overall, Lively Root is too costly for me to justify. While the service is convenient, its pricing is overly aggressive and not to nitpick, but it lacks real pots—adding on one more thing I need to buy.

Pet friendly plants aren’t always easy to come by, so in that regard Lively Root does have a variety of options, and if you buy the plants individually you can get pots for them too. If you want to fill your home with high-quality foliage for cheap, this isn’t the right service for you. However, there are certainly less expensive options that include more materials.

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Prices were accurate at the time this article was published but may change over time.