From: "Mary Ellen Curtin" 
Newsgroups: rec.gardens
Subject: Deer-defeating plants
Date: Mon, 30 May 94 00:04:43 -0500

There have been a number of questions from time to time about plants
that deer _don't_ like to eat; as in, are there any?  I picked up the
following list at a local wildflower preserve, it being a reprint from
a New Jersey magazine.  The emphasis is thus on plants suitable for the
mid-atlantic states, but these genera are likely to be good places to
start for much of the rest of the country, too.

As usual, this list comes without any kind of warranty: if deer (or
other critters) get hungry enough, they will eat ANYTHING.  Last year
some mammal (possibly a deer) ate the entire flower spike off one of my
digitalis plants, which should be not merely distasteful but poisonous.
But who knows, maybe the creature was suffering from a heart condition.

So here's the list, titled: "Best Choices for Gardening with Deer."  I
have marked shade-tolerant species with *.

Perennials:

Achillea (yarrow)
Aconitum (monkshood)*
Allium (garlic, chives, etc.)
Anaphalis (pearly everlasting)
Anchusa (bugloss)
Anemome -- Japanese and grape-leafed only*
Aquilegia canadensis (native columbine)*
Artemisia
Aruncus (goatsbeard)*
Asclepias (butterfly weed -- _not_ butterfly bush)
Astilbe*
Borage
Caltha (marsh marigold)*
Centaurea montana (mountain bluet)
Clematis
Convallaria (lily-of-the-valley)*
Convolvulus (morning glory?)
Delphinium
Dicentra (bleeding heart)*
Digitalis (foxglove) [self-seeding biennial]*
Echinacea (purple coneflower)
Erigeron (fleabane)
Euphorbia (spurge)
Geranium (cranesbill -- _not_ common geranium)
Gysophila (baby's breath)
Helianthus (sunflower)
herbs, various
Lavandula (true lavender)
Lunaria (money plant/honesty)[self-seeding biennial]
Lychnis (maltese cross)
Mertensia (virgina bluebells)*
Monarda (bee balm)
Myosotis (forget-me-not) [self-seeding biennial]*
Physostegia (obedient plant)
Papaver (oriental poppy)
Pulmonaria (lungwort)
Ranunculus (buttercup)
Rudbeckia gloriosa (coneflower; aka R. hirta -- _not_ Goldstrum)
Salvia (sage)
Stachys (lamb's ear)
Stokesia (stoke's aster)
Thalictrum (meadow rue)
Tradescantia (spiderwort)*
Trillium*
Trollius (globeflower)
Vinca major (periwinkle)*

Annuals:

Ageratum
Calendula (pot marigold)
Centaurea rutifola (dusty miller)
Cosmos
Helichrysum (strawflower)
herbs, various
Lantana (trailing lantana)
Salvia (sage)

Bulbs:

Canna lily
Gladiola
Hyacinth
Narcissus (daffodils and jonquils)

Good gardening.

Mary Ellen
internet:  
postal:    9 Titus Mill Rd., Pennington, NJ 08534,  USA


Newsgroups: rec.gardens
From: cl27111@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Christopher  Lindsey)
Subject: Re: Question on deer proof plants
Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1993 06:45:30 GMT

        Here's a list of plants that deer don't like that I posted a while
back:

        Acanthus                        Kniphofia
        Aconitum                        Leucojum
        Agave                           Lirioe
        Allium                          Lychnis coronaria
        Amaryllis                       Melianthus
        Artemisia                       Melissa
        Arum                            Melittis
        Arundo                          Mentha
        Astilbe                         Mirabilis
        Campanula                       Myosotis
        Carex                           Nepeta
        Centaurea                       Origanum
        Ceratostigma                    Paeonia
        Chrysanthemum maximum           Papaver
        Cortaderia                      Phormium
        Crinum                          Polygonatum
        Crocosmia                       Potentilla
        Dicentra                        Pulmonaria
        Digitalis                       Romneya
        Epimedium                       Rudbeckia
        Euphorbia                       Saliva
        Ferns                           Satureja
        Festuca glauca                  Scabiosa
        Filipendula                     Sisyrinchium
        Gaillardia                      Tellima
        Geranium                        Thalictrum
        Gerbera                         Tiarella
        Gunnera                         Trillium
        Helianthus                      Veratrum
        Helichrysum                     Vinca
        Hosta                           Iris

Hope it helps!

Chris

Christopher Lindsey -- Dept. of Landscape Architecture, Univ. of Illinois