Catskill Native Nursery - Deer-proof Plants?

Growing up in the Catskills in the 60’s & 70’s, deer were a rare site, and one in which we took great pleasure. Times have changed and changed dramatically. Deer have become the scourge of homeowner’s ornamental gardens and few things are as discouraging as the discovery that deer have paid you a visit, browsed their way through your perennial beds and given your trees and shrubs an uncalled for pruning. At the nursery, we are not immune, although a combination of fencing (conventional and electric) and dogs has greatly reduced our deer problem. One of the other important options for the home gardener is the use of deer-resistant plants. Lists of deer-resistant plants have great utility, although they should never be thought of as being 100% accurate. This is because deer choose plants based on what is available, how hungry they are, and what time of year it is. A plant that might have escaped one year may be browsed the next year when less food is available to deer in the wild.

Contribute to the Lists

I compiled the lists from whatever sources came to my attention at the moment and some sources may be more accurate than others. Because deer may have local browse preferences these lists could become more useful if local gardeners contribute to them. Let us know if a plant in your garden is verifiably deer-resistant, or, contrary to a listing here, one that deer feed on . Email us at info@catskillnativenursery.com. I’ll add your information to the appropriate list and a description to the Notes page. Much of the information on deer-resistance so obtained will be anecdotal not scientific, so just because a contributor feels that, say, Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis) is deer resistant don’t necessarily assume it is. For example, a gardener might wake up one morning and find that all the plants in the garden have been eaten to the ground except for a patch of Cardinal Flower. He or she concludes that Cardinal Flower is deer resistant. The other possibility though is that the deer were about to finish off the Cardinal Flower for dessert, but at that moment were frightened away by a neighbor starting up the old jalopy.

The lists are restricted to North American native plants. So don’t assume that a plant that is not listed here is not deer-resistant. Many non-natives, for example daffodils, are highly resistant to deer. You’ll have to consult original source material to find out if a nonnative plant may or may not be deer resistant.

Finally, many sources simply list a genus of plants as being deer resistant. One may assume that any member of the genus is potentially deer resistant though many may not be. For genus listings, I am in the process of listing species within the genus. By doing this I hope to provide a list of North American native plants that many of you may be unaware of and, moreover, unaware of as potentially deer resistant plants. For example, many sources list Clematis as deer-resistant (although it must be said that more than one source also lists Clematis as a deer favorite. Which is it? Let us know your own experiences.). If I just entered this as “Clematis spp.” many of you would assume I was referring to the commonly available large-flowered hybrid Clematis. But by listing Clematis crispa, Clematis viorna, etc., you get to see that there are actually native clematis species, and that they may be deer-resistant.