Hey, Deer! Get Off Of My Flowers

Have you ever spent a lot of money and labored planting beautiful, full shrubs to have them thin out overnight? Or, have you planted beds of the most fragrant flowers, to have all of the heads removed the next day? No, it’s not your neighbor trying to ruin your picture-perfect garden out of pure jealousy. The real culprit? Deer. 

Deer are a wonderful part of living in the more rural sections of New Jersey, but they also are herbivores and have no qualms about eating off of your property. While there are deer resistant sprays you can spritz on the garden, the safest way to ensure an uneaten garden is to plant species which deer find unappetizing. While this may eliminated some of your favorites, it is a definite money saver!

Since plants and flower varieties (and deer “tastes”) vary from state to state I retrieved this list of plants from the Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station. 

Deer rarely eat:

• Ageratum
• Allegheny Spruce
• American Holly
• Angel’s Trumpet
• Anise
• Anise Hyssop
• Annual Vinca
• Arrowwood Viurnum
• Autumn Crocus
• Barberry
• Barrenwort
• Basket of Gold
• Bayberry
• Bearberry
• Big Bluestem
• Bigleaf Goldenray
• Bishop’s Weed
• Bleeding Heart
• Blue Fescue
• Blue Mist Shrub
• Blue Oat Grass
• Bluebell
• Bottlebrush Buckeye
• Broom
• Bugleweed
• Bush Cinquefoil
• Butter & Eggs
• Buttercup
• Butterfly Bush
• Cactus
• Catmint
• Christmas Fern
• Cinnamon Fern
• Clump Bamboo
• Common Boxwood
• Common Foxglove
• Common Tansy
• Corydalis
• Crown Imperial, Firtilia
• Daffodil
• Dame’s Rocket
• Daphne
• Devil’s Walking Stick
• Drooping leucothoe
• Dusty Miller
• Dwarf Alberta Spruce
• European Ginger
• False Camomile
• False Indigo
• Feather Reed Grass
• Flowering Tobacco
• Forget-me-not
• Fountain Grass
• Fragrant Sumac
• Garden Sage 
• Germander
• Giant Japanese Silver Grass
• Giant Reed
• Golden Bamboo
• Greek Jerusalem Sage 
• Hakonechloa
• Hard Rush
• Hayscented Fern
• Heath
• Heather
• Heliotrope
• Holly Fern
• Horehound
• Horseradish
• Hyssop
• Indian Grass
• Irish
• Jack-in-the-pulpit
• Japanese Black Pine
• Japanese Blood Grass
• Japanese Painted Fern
• Japanese Pieris, Andromeda
• Japanese Plum Yew
• Japanese Sedge
• Japanese Silver Grass
• Japanese Skimmia
• Japanese Sweet Flag
• John T. Morris Holly
• Katsura Tree
• Lamb’s Ear
• Large Blue June Grass
• Larkspur
• Lavender
• Lavender Cotton
• Leatherleaf Mahonia
• Lemon Balm
• Lenten or Christmas Rose
• Lily of the Vallley
• Little Bluestem
• Lungwort
• Lyida Morris Holly
• Lyme Grass
• Marjoram 
• May Apple 
• Meadow Rue
• Mimoasa
• Mint
• Monkshood
• Moonglow Juniper
• Mountain Pieris
• New York Fern
• Northern Sea Oats 
• Oregano
• Oregon Grape Holly 
• Oriental Fountain Grass
• Ornamental Onion
• Ostrich Fern
• Pacysandra
• Pampus Grass
• Paper Birch
• Pawpaw
• Peony
• Pitch Pine
• Poppy
• Pot Marigold
• Potentilla, Cinquefoil
• Prince of Wales Juniper
• Purple Moor Grass
• Purple Rock-Cress
• Ravenna Grass
• Red Elderberry
• Red Pine
• River Birch 
• Rock-Cress
• Rocket Ligularia
• Rodgers Flower
• Rose Campion
• Rosemary
• Royal Fern
• Rue
• Russian Cypress
• Russian Olive
• Russian Sage
• Sensitive Fern
• Siberian Bugloss
• Siberian Squill 
• Silver Mound
• Small Globe Thistle
• Snapdragon
• Snowdrops 
• Snow-on-the-Mountain
• Spider Flower
• Spotted Deadnettle
• Spurge
• Statice
• Strawflower
• Sweet Alyssum
• Sweet Box
• Sweet Woodruff
• Switch Grass
• Tarragon
• Threadleaf Coreopsis
• Thyme
• Variegated Purple Moor Grass
• Weeping Love Grass
• Wild Ginger
• Winter Aconite
• Wood Fern
• Yucca

Deer Candy:

• Tulips
• American Arborvitae
• Candy Lily
• Cherries
• European Mountain Ash
• Evergreen Azaleas
• Hardy Geranium
• Pinxterbloom Azalea
• Plums
• Rhododendrons
• Sea-Holly
• Strawberry
• Wintercreeper
• Yews

If some of your favorite flowers are on the “Deer Candy” List, consider planting them in fenced in areas around your pool, in shadow boxes, or in hanging baskets.