By Henry Cauley of Pimmit Hills Pollinator Company

Gardeners everywhere know the feeling: you come out one morning to stroll through the landscape, only to find that many of your plants have been decimated by deer.  White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are large, native mammals that wreak havoc in our gardens, not only by browsing on our flowers and shrubs, but also by knocking down our plants to create bedding sites and rubbing up on young trees during mating season (buck rub).  As the population of these deer continue to grow, so does their need to find more sources for food, and thus gardeners continue to grow increasingly frustrated, exasperated, and ultimately defeated in their attempts to keep these animals out of their yards. 

The countless products and advertised solutions to keep these creatures from entering our gardens  generally fall into two groups: physical barriers and chemical barriers.  Yet neither group often proves to be a complete solution.  Adult deer can jump over 7 feet high, but an 8-foot fence is neither an aesthetic nor financial option for many.  Chemical barriers may result in a deer only taking a single bite of a plant before turning away in disgust, yet this assumes the chemical has been applied correctly and consistently, a timely affair. 

Given these incomplete and inconsistent solutions, what is a gardener to do?  One simple option with outsized impact is to introduce more native plants into your garden.  Native plants offer a myriad of benefits:  fewer disease problems, easier care solutions, more attractive to pollinators, and more suited for our climate.  Importantly, these plants have also evolved alongside deer, meaning they have developed various natural defenses to make them less attractive to these animals.

Now, there is one important caveat: there are few truly deer-resistant plants.  Instead, these native plants have specific characteristics that put themselves in a better position to be unattractive to deer: fuzzy leaves; tough, leathery, fibrous leaves; aromatic leaves; aromatic flowers; spines or bristles; and poisonous compounds.  By filling the garden with native plants that have these different characteristics, gardeners will be making their landscapes beautiful, impactful, and resilient.  

Thankfully many types of native plants are now commonly available at major nurseries in our area, and several excellent native-specific nurseries are also in business to offer an even greater selection of plants.  Below are several examples of native perennial flowers for a wide variety of garden types:

Try These Deer Resistant Native Perennials

Spring Blooming: Eastern Bluestar (Amsonia tabernaemontana), Canada Anemone (Anemone canadensis), Eastern Red Columbine (Aqueliga canadensis), Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense), Blue False Indigo (Baptisia australis), Winecup (Callirhoe involucrate)

Summer Blooming: Common Yarrow (Achillea millefolium), Nodding Onion (Allium cernuum), Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa), Green and Gold (Chrysogonum virginianum), Star Tickseed (Coreopsis pubescens), Fringed Bleedingheart (Dicentra eximia), Purple Coneflower (Echinacea pupurea), Rattlesnake Master (Eryngium yuccifolium), False Sunflower (Heliopsis helianthoides)

Fall Blooming: Blue Mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum), Spotted Joe-Pye Weed (Eutrochium maculatum), Common Sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale), Dense Blazing Star (Liatris spicata), New York Ironweed (Vernonia noveboracensis), Tall Goldenrod (Solidago altissima) 

Sun: Common Yarrow (Achillea millefolium), Nodding Onion (Allium cernuum), Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa), Blue False Indigo (Baptisia australis), Winecup (Callirhoe involucrate), Blue Mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum), Star Tickseed (Coreopsis pubescens), Purple Coneflower (Echinacea pupurea), Rattlesnake Master (Eryngium yuccifolium), Spotted Joe-Pye Weed (Eutrochium maculatum), Common Sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale), False Sunflower (Heliopsis helianthoides), Dense Blazing Star (Liatris spicata), New York Ironweed (Vernonia noveboracensis), Tall Goldenrod (Solidago altissima)

Part Shade/Shade: Eastern Bluestar (Amsonia tabernaemontana), Canada Anemone (Anemone canadensis), Eastern Red Columbine (Aqueliga canadensis), Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense), Green and Gold (Chrysogonum virginianum), Fringed Bleedingheart (Dicentra eximia)

Dry: Common Yarrow (Achillea millefolium), Eastern Red Columbine (Aqueliga canadensis), Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa), Star Tickseed (Coreopsis pubescens), Purple Coneflower (Echinacea pupurea), False Sunflower (Heliopsis helianthoides), Tall Goldenrod (Solidago altissima)

Moist/Wet: Nodding Onion (Allium cernuum), Eastern Bluestar (Amsonia tabernaemontana), Canada Anemone (Anemone canadensis), Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense), Blue False Indigo (Baptisia australis), Winecup (Callirhoe involucrate), Green and Gold (Chrysogonum virginianum), Blue Mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum), Fringed Bleedingheart (Dicentra eximia), Rattlesnake Master (Eryngium yuccifolium), Spotted Joe-Pye Weed (Eutrochium maculatum), Common Sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale), Dense Blazing Star (Liatris spicata), New York Ironweed (Vernonia noveboracensis)