Cross These Off the “Deer-Safe” List

September 28th, 2021

   No plant is safe from the gnashing teeth of a hungry deer.

What’s left of my new Cornelian cherry dogwood tree after deer munched on it.

   That’s the lesson I learned first-hand last week when I looked out at my strangely barer driveway-bank bed, only to discover that “deer-resistant” plants the deer had let alone for two years were suddenly gnawed.

   A golden elderberry, a dark-leafed elderberry, several variegated Solomon’s seals, three panicle hydrangeas, several dwarf Virginia sweetspires, three fothergillas, a weigela, a diervilla, a dwarf lilac, and even a planting of the tropical wandering jew (how do they even know what that is?) were all browsed.

   And my patch of knowingly “risky” coral-colored, mildew-resistant Beacon impatiens? The ones that had gone untouched since May? Completely devoured, save for a couple of bare stem stubs.

   I can’t say I was completely surprised. I’ve heard the saying that there is no such thing as a “deer-proof” plant.

   But this was late summer after plentiful rains, meaning that unlike in the middle of winter, there were plenty of other dinner choices out there.

   The chewed plants (except for the impatiens) also were ones fairly low on most deer-resistant plant lists and ones I planted in my unfenced outer yard precisely because they typically aren’t deer favorites.

   I didn’t even attempt to plant hollies, roses, daylilies, hostas, any fruit or vegetable, or anything else on their preferred list out there, reserving those for use inside the back-yard deer fence.

   I thought I was in the clear outside the fence, though, after two years of real-life testing.

   Go figure. All it takes is one curious deer to polish off half a landscape bed in a single night – even plants his/her furry colleagues have passed by and passed up many times before.

   Just when you think you have them figured out…

   A few of the plants were only lightly chewed, indicating to me that the deer was doing some taste-testing and really didn’t like everything, i.e. the fothergillas, panicle hydrangeas, Virginia sweetspires, and weigela.

Deer ate some of these celosia but must not have liked them a lot… otherwise they’d be gone altogether.

   But the impatiens, Solomon’s seal, elderberries, and wandering jew were chewed to remnants, telling me they’re now at risk.

   I don’t know if it was the same broad-taste deer out front or not, but I also noticed browsing to more plants there that had gone untouched up to now.

   Besides some unsurprising damage to coleus, deer also had chewed on my oakleaf hydrangea, my new Cornelian cherry dogwood, a patch of celosia, a new baptisia, a young Scarlet Fire Kousa dogwood, some creeping sedums, a year-old dwarf lilac, and even a young ginkgo tree – a species that ranks  low on their usual menu preference.

   My plan is to spot-fence the young trees until they develop more girth (sometimes deer let more mature wood alone) and to treat the newly picked-on plants with deer repellent. (I’ve had good luck on some other species with a homemade spray using rosemary soil as the main ingredient… one tablespoon per gallon of water along with a tablespoon each of hot sauce, cooking oil, and dishwashing liquid, plus a cup of milk and a strained egg.)

Deer stripped this elderberry nearly bare of its foliage.

   The saving grace is that the list of plants that deer still haven’t touched in the unprotected part of my yard is decent. As of now, I can say deer (at least my deer) aren’t interested in:

   Trees: crape myrtle, dawn redwood.

   Shrubs: caryopteris, dwarf (and sterile) butterfly bush, spirea, sumac ‘Gro-Low,’ summersweet

   Evergreens: Atlantic white cedar, boxwood, box honeysuckle, cedar, cryptomeria, dwarf pine, falsecypress Soft Serve, goldthread falsecypress, Hinoki cypress ‘Crippsii,’ Japanese plum yew, Japanese umbrella pine, juniper, leucothoe, nandina, Russian cypress, spruce, western arborvitae ‘Whipcord.’

   Perennials: ajuga, allium, aralia, astilbe, bear’s breeches, betony, brunnera, coreopsis, epimedium, foamybells, gaillardia, hardy geranium, helleborus, iris, lavender, leadwort, ligularia, Montauk daisy, mum, ornamental grasses, pachysandra, peony, purple coneflower, rodgersia, Russian sage, salvia, sweet woodruff, yucca.

   Annuals: ageratum, alyssum, bidens, calibrachoa, lantana, marigold, melampodium, petunia, vinca, zinnia.

   I emphasize “as of now” because I don’t trust that just because something hasn’t been eaten yet doesn’t mean it won’t be eaten tonight.

   For more on deer plant-browsing habits and a list of choices low on the deer menu, check out the post I wrote last year.