DEER RESISTANT PLANTS

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DEER IN YOUR GARDEN

Deer show distinct preferences to certain types of flowers. Plants that are soft to the touch with high water content (like hostas) are favorites, as well as buds and rhododendrons. Deer don’t seem to like plants with coarse, bristly, fuzzy, or spiny textures, nor do they enjoy those with intense aromas. That said, if hungry enough, deer will eat anything. They will leave jagged damage on your plant leaves so you will know they have been to your house for dinner. The heaviest browsing by deer will occur from October through February, especially during difficult winter months.

Note: Even “resistant” varieties can be vulnerable in the first few weeks after planting. If you have major deer problems, we recommend spraying new plants with a deer-repellent for 3 to 4 weeks after planting to prevent them from being nibbled on and damaged. The plants should survive even if they are feasted on, as long as the root systems of the plants are not damaged.

Black Chokeberry, a deer resistant native shrub

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Forget Me Nots & Bleeding Hearts are both deer resistant plants.

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CONTROL AND PREVENTION

How to Get Rid of Deer

There are many techniques you can try to deter deer from munching on your plants. Try some of these methods for your garden:

• Spray flowers and shrubs with a deer repellent that contains a mixture of dried bovine blood, sulfured eggs, and garlic. These repellents are available at most home and garden stores. They will not harm your plants and are usually effective in deterring deer.

• Scatter or hang bars of deodorant or cheap motel soap around the garden; if you leave the wrappers on, the soap will last longer. Irish Spring is particularly recommended.

• For your garden, choose flowers and shrubs that are unpalatable to deer, such as forsythia, lilac bush, marigolds, zinnias, daffodils, lavender and snapdragons. Contact your local cooperative extension for suggestions in your area. Here is the Almanac’s list of deer-resistant plants.

• Put strong-smelling plants that deer don’t like on the outside of your garden and smaller plants that need more protection on the inside. Deer tend to stay away from poisonous plants, strongly flavored plants, and plants with hairy or furry leaves.

• The most reliable method is to fence in your garden. We sell a black vinyl fence for keeping deer out. The fence needs to be at least 8ft tall. A strong 8ft metal fence would work nicely but that can get quite expensive.

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Plastic deer fencing

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Plastic deer fencing

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Wooded gate & plastic deer fencing

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Wooden gate & plastic deer fencing

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DEER RESISTANT ANNUALS

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Lantana ‘Sunrise Rose’

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Alyssum

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Calendula Bon Bon mix. A dwarf Calendula. Blooms all summer in full sun or part shade.

DEER RESISTANT ANNUALS

• Acroclinum (Paper Flower)

• Ageratum

• Angelonia: Dwarf Serena, tall Angelonias and our favorite tall one is the Angel Face Series

• Bachelor Buttons (Corn Flowers)

• Bracteantha (Strawflower)

• Brugmansia

• Calendula (Angel's Trumpets)

• Cleome (Spider Flowers)

• Cosmos sulphureus: Cosmos Xanthos,Cosmos Apricotta and our new Cosmos Diablo

• Datura (Trumpet Flower)

• Delphinium (Larkspur)

• Dusty Miller (Silver Ragwort)

• Euphorbia marginatá ‘Snow on the Mountain’

• Geraniums (Crane's Bill)

• Geraniums (scented)

• Gomphrena (Globe amaranth)

• Gypsophila (Baby's Breath)

• Heliotropium (Heliotrope)

• Herbs (annuals): cilantro / parsley / dill / chervil / lemon grass / lavender / lemon verbena / marjoram

• Lantana

• Limonium (Statice) (Sea lavenders)

• Lobularia maritima (Alyssum)

• Papaver  (Poppies)

• Salvias

• Tagetes (Marigolds)

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Heliotrope Fragrant Delight

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Lantana

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Salvia “Amistad” (annual and season extender)

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DEER RESISTANT PERENNIALS

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Nepeta “Walkers Low’ catmint

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Pennisetum Moudry-black fountain grass blooms in late summer

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Bearded Iris

DEER RESISTANT PERENNIALS

• Achillea (Yarrow)

• Aconitum (Wolf's bane)

• Agastache (Anise hyssop)

• Allium Ornamental Onion)

• Alpestris (Forget-Me-Nots)

• Amsonia (Blue Stars)

• Ariseama (Jack-in-the-Pulpit)

• Arum (Arum Lilies)

• Aruncus (Goatsbeard)

• Artemesia (Mugworts)

• Asarum (Wild Gingers)

• Asclepias tuberosa (Butterfly Weed)

• Aster

• Astilbe (False Goatsbeard)

• Baptisia (Wild Indigo)

• Borage

• Bronze Fennel

• Cimicifuga (Bugbane)

• Coreopsis verticillata ‘Zagreb’ and ‘Moonbeam’ (Whorled Tickseed)

• Corydalis

• Dicentra (Bleeding Heart)

• Digitalis (Foxglove)

• Dryopteris (Wood Ferns)

• Echinops (Globe Thistle)

• Epimedium (Barrenwort)

• Euphorbia (Spurges)

• Festuca glauca (Blue Fescue)

• Helleborus (Hellebore)

• Herbs (perennial): Rosemary / thyme / sage / tarragon / mints / Rue

• Iris: Bearded, Japanese and Siberian Iris

• Kirengeshoma (Yellow Wax Bells)

• Lavandula (Lavender)

• Liatris (Blazing stars)

• Lily if the valley

• Marrubium vulgare (Horehound)

• Melissa officinalis (Lemon balm)

• Mint family perennials

• Monarda (Beebalm)

• Narcissus (Daffodils)

• Nepeta (Catnips)

• Oregano Drops of Gold Jupiter (new)

• Oregano: ornamental and edible

• Ornamental Grasses

• Osmunda Fern (Royal Fern)

• Pachysandra

• Paeonia (Peonies)

• Papaver (Poppies)

• Perovskia (Russian Sage)

• Salvia

• Stachys bizantina (Lambs Ears)

• Teucrium (Germanders)

• Yucca

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Echinops, Globe Thistle

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Dicentra Bleeding Hearts

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Hellebores

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Thyme Lemon Variegated

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Helictotrichon Saphirsprudel

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Foxglove

Amsonia hubrichtii

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DEER RESISTANT TREES & SHRUBS

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Lilac

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Pieris japonica

DEER RESISTANT TREES & SHRUBS

• Abelia

• Acer (Maple)

• Aesculus (Horse Chestnut)

• Amelanchier (Serviceberry)

• Aralia (Spikenards)

• Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (Bearberry)

• Aronia (Chokeberry)

• Aucuba (spotted laurel)

• Betula (Birch)

• Buddleja davidii (Butterfly Bush)

• Buxus (Boxwood)

• Callicarpa (Beautyberry)

• Calycanthus floridus (Sweet Shrub)

• Calycanthus virginicum (Carolina Allspice)

• Caryopteris (Bluebeard)

• Cercidiphyllum (Katsura)

• Chaenomeles (Flowering Quince)

• Chamaecyparis (False Cypress)

• Chionanthus

• Clerodendron trichotoma (Harlequin Glorybower)

• Clethra (Sweet Pepperbush)

• Cotinus (Smoke bush)

• Cornus (Dogwood)

• Cotoneaster (Bearberry cotoneaster)

• Cryptomeria (sugi)

• Daphne

• Deutzia

• Enkianthus

• Forsythia

• Fothergilla

• Gleditsia

• Hamamelis (Witch-hazel)

• Hibiscus syriacus (Rose of Sharon)

• Hypericum (St. Johns Wort)

• Ilex opaca (American Holly)

• Ilex verticillata (Winterberry Holly)

• Illicium floridanum (Florida Anise)

• Itea virginica (Virginia sweetspire)

• Juniperus (Junipers)

• Kerria japonica

• Kolkwitzia (Beauty Bush)

• Symphoricarpos (Crepe Myrtle)

• Leucothoe fontanesiana (Fetterbush)

• Lindera (Spicebush)

• Liriodendron tulipifera (tuliptree)

• Magnolia

• Mahonia aquifolium (Oregon Grape Holly)

• Mahonia nervosa

• Mahonia repens

• Metasequoia (dawn redwood)

• Microbiota decussata (Siberian Cypress)

• Myrica pensylvanica (Bayberry)

• Nellia sinensis

• Osmanthus (Devilwood)

• Oxydendrum (sorrel tree)

• Philadelphus  (Mock oranges)

• Picea glauca (Alberta Spruce)

• Pieris japonica (Andromeda)

• Pines

• Potentilla (Cinquefoil)

• Prunus laurocerasus (Cherry Laurel)

• Prunus maritima (Beach plum)

• Prunus serrulata (Japanese Cherry)

• Rhus (Sumac)

• Rubus (Trailing Blackberry)

• Salix (Willows)

• Sambucus (Elderberry)

• Sarcococca hookeriana (Sweetbox)

• Skimmia

• Spirea (Meadowsweets)

• Symphoricarpos (Coralberry)

• Syringa vulgaris (Lilac)

• Viburnum dentatum (Arrowwood Viburnum)

• Weigela

• Wisteria

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Clethra

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Fothergilla

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Spirea

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Callicarpa

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variegated Boxwood

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oh deer!

Monrovia deer resistant plants

deer resistant plant rating

[PLANT PROFILE] POPPIES

POPPIES:

SPRING FAVORITE!

We love our poppies at Vineyard Gardens! We grow a lot of different varieties. There are both annual and perennial poppies. Some are truly perennial, some are short lived perennial and some are annual poppies. The annual poppies love to colonize by reseeding and return year after year. We raise our annual poppies from seed and grow a fine selection for your garden. One perennial poppy we grow from seed is the Spanish poppy, Papaver rupifragum, Double tangerine Gem. It is the latest blooming of the poppies with pretty apricot blooms in late summer. It grows wild in the mountains of Spain along with Spanish lavender.

Poppies like a rich, well drained soil in full sun. Deer Resistant!!

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Iceland Poppy

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Iceland Poppies

PAPAVER ORIENTALIS/ORIENTAL POPPIES

The most famous of the perennial poppies are the Oriental Poppies. They are long lived perennials that bloom in early spring, go dormant in the heat of summer and then come back bigger and better the next year.

Oriental Poppies are known for their dinner plate sized blooms. The red with the black center is probably the best known. This year we have Crimson Red, Orange Red and Royal Wedding, a white one with a black center. We also have Turkenlouise, a red one with ruffled edges on the petals, and Princess Victoria Louise, a salmon colored one. Oriental Poppies are very dramatic flowers!

Make sure to mark the spot so that you don’t disturb the sleeping poppy!

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Oriental poppies photo by keith kurman

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Oriental poppies

PAPAVER NUDICAULE/ICELAND POPPIES

Icelandic poppies, Papaver nudicaule (meaning bare stems), are another type of poppy that is considered perennial, but seem to be shorter lived than the Oriental Poppies. Iceland poppies are just gorgeous! Their crepe paper like flowers are very delicate and bloom on tall, thin 1ft stems. Plant 2-3 in a pot and enjoy them all spring and into early summer.

We carry Iceland Poppies in the Champagne Series (individual colors) and the Wonderland Series (a mix of colors). We have the Champagne Series in scarlet, pink, yellow, orange, and red for the individual colors. These are hardy but short lived perennials. They are native to sub polar regions of Asia and North America.

Iceland Poppies are blooming now!

Iceland Poppy

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Iceland poppy

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Iceland poppies

ANNUAL POPPIES

Papaver rhoeas, Papaver commutatum, Papaver paeoniflorus, Papaver somniferum

The great reseeding poppies are the annual poppies. We grow these from seed, seeded in early to mid February and sell them in packs and 2” pots.

Following the spring through early summer flowering, annual poppies have beautiful seed pods that extend the season from summer into fall. These seed pods ripen and spill out into the surrounding soil and baby seedlings emerge the following year. I know of many sunny gardens where annual poppies have colonized and make a fabulous easy to grow display year after year.

This year we are growing:

• Shirley Poppies

• Papaver rhoeas, including Double Choice Mix

• Select Seed, White Bridal Veil

• We are growing the peony flowered poppy in Lauren’s Grape, Hungarian Blue and White Cloud.

• Ladybird Poppy, Papaver commutatum, a red flower with a black blotch at the base of each petal. It is a prolific bloomer.

• Papaver somniferum, in Imperial Pink and The Giant with a red flower.

  Ready to be planted now!

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GROWING & CARE

• Plant your poppies in a full sun garden with well drained soil.

• They have beautiful seed pods that extend the season beyond bloom.

• The annual poppies can be dead headed to extend bloom but at some point let the beautiful seed pods develop and let them ripen on the plant.

• Poppies will reseed and you may have lots of little poppy seedlings for years to come.

• If they are happy, they will colonize in your garden. It is wonderful when plants colonize! Other plants do this too!

Come to Vineyard Gardens to find out what other plants reseed and colonize in your garden!

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