DEER RESISTANT PLANTS

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Dealing with

Deer in Your Garden:

What to Know and How to Protect Your Plants

Deer can easily devastate a garden, but a little understanding of their habits can go a long way. Understanding what deer look for (and what they avoid) can help you make strategic plant choices. Deer show distinct preferences when it comes to browsing. Knowing their favorite textures can help you plan your landscape:

• The Favorites: Deer adore plants that are soft to the touch with high water content (like Hostas), as well as tender new flower buds and evergreen shrubs like Rhododendrons.

• The Deterrents: They generally avoid plants with coarse, bristly, fuzzy, or spiny textures, and they naturally steer clear of plants with intense aromas.

*Note: If deer are hungry enough, they will eat just about anything!

Signs of Deer Damage

Because deer lack upper incisors, they don't leave a clean cut when they browse. Instead, they leave behind rough, jagged tears on stems and foliage, a telltale sign they’ve been to your property for dinner. While browsing happens year-round, the heaviest pressure always occurs from October through February, especially during challenging winter months when wild food sources are scarce.

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 & Prevention

How to Deter Deer

No garden is completely deer-proof, even known "deer-resistant" varieties are highly vulnerable during their first few weeks in the ground. New plants are often lush from nursery care, making them an irresistible target. There are several highly effective techniques you can use to protect your landscape. Combining a few of these methods will yield the best results:

• Commercial Repellents: If you struggle with heavy deer pressure, we highly recommend spraying vulnerable plants & shrubs and newly installed plants with a deer repellent for 3 to 4 weeks after planting. This breaks their browsing habit and gives the plants time to establish. Products containing a mixture of dried bovine blood, sulfured eggs, or garlic are incredibly effective because they target both a deer's sense of smell and taste. These organic sprays will not harm your plants and are available at Vineyard Gardens.

• Strategic Plant Placement: Design your garden beds with deer behavior in mind. Place heavily scented, fuzzy leaved or poisonous plants on the outer perimeter of your gardens to act as a natural barrier, hiding the more tempting, delicate plants on the inside.

• Choose Unpalatable Varieties: Fill your landscape with beautiful plants that deer naturally dislike. Excellent options include Lilac, Lavender, Marigolds, Zinnias, Daffodils, and Snapdragons. Stop by our nursery, and our staff can help you pick out the perfect deer-resistant combinations for your specific yard.

• The Soap Method: For a quick home remedy, try scattering or hanging heavily scented bars of soap (like Irish Spring) around the perimeter of your garden beds. Leaving the wrappers on helps the soap endure rain and last a bit longer.

• Install Protective Fencing: When deer pressure is severe, a physical barrier is the most reliable long-term solution. To truly keep deer from jumping into your yard, a fence must be at least 8 feet tall. While a solid 8-foot metal fence is highly effective, it can become quite expensive. As a fantastic, low-profile alternative, we sell a black vinyl deer fencing at the nursery that blends beautifully into the landscape while keeping your plants entirely safe.

Fortunately, even if a plant gets nibbled on, it will typically survive and recover beautifully as long as its root system remains healthy and undamaged.

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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

POPPIES

POPPIES:

SPRING FAVORITE!

We love our poppies at Vineyard Gardens and grow a wide range of varieties for every garden. From true perennials to short-lived perennials and classic annuals, each has its own charm. Our annual poppies readily reseed, often returning year after year to create natural, evolving drifts of color.

We start our annual poppies from seed and offer a beautiful, carefully grown selection. Also grown from seed is a perennial variety that is among our favorite : the Spanish poppy, Papaver rupifragum ‘Double Tangerine Gem.’ This late-blooming beauty produces soft apricot flowers in late summer. Native to the mountains of Spain, it grows alongside Spanish lavender, bringing a touch of that wild, sun-soaked landscape into your garden.

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 well-known perennial poppies are the Oriental poppies. They are long-lived, resilient plants that make a bold seasonal statement. They bloom in late spring to early summer, go dormant in the heat of midsummer, and return the following year even larger and more impressive.

Oriental poppies are celebrated for their dramatic, dinner-plate–sized blooms. The classic red with a dark, inky center is perhaps the most iconic. This year, we’re offering Crimson Red, Orange Red, and ‘Royal Wedding,’ a striking white variety with a black center. We also have ‘Turkenlouis,’ with its vibrant red, ruffled petals, and ‘Princess Victoria Louise,’ a beautiful soft salmon. Oriental poppies bring true drama to the garden.

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, their name meaning “bare stems”, are another perennial type, though typically shorter-lived than Oriental poppies. They are truly stunning, with delicate, crepe paper–like blooms held on slender, one-foot stems that seem to float above the foliage. Plant two or three in a pot for a soft, airy display that lasts through spring and into early summer.

We carry Iceland poppies in both the Champagne Series (individual colors) and the Wonderland Series (a cheerful mix). The Champagne Series is available in scarlet, pink, yellow, orange, and red. While hardy, these are considered short-lived perennials. They are native to subpolar regions of Asia and North America, bringing a cool-climate elegance to the garden.

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 reseeders of the poppy world are the annual poppies. We grow these from seed, starting them in early to mid-February, and offer them in packs and 2” pots.

After their spring to early summer bloom, annual poppies continue to shine with their sculptural seed pods, extending the season into summer and fall. As the pods ripen, they scatter seeds into the surrounding soil, and new seedlings emerge the following year. In many sunny gardens, annual poppies happily naturalize, creating an effortless, ever-evolving 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 pattern 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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