Deer-Proof Plants

It’s a bit ironic that at this time of year while we may be hanging out all manner of nuts and goodies to attract the birds another type of wildlife is busily helping itself to the rest of the garden receiving not nearly so warm a welcome. The deer hereabouts are always on the increase despite the occasional culls and both solitary Muntjac and gregarious Fallow are aggressive vandals especially in a winter like this when they are forced to become more eclectic in their tastes and daring in where they forage. Even well before Christmas at a clients garden I noticed that smoke bushes were being nibbled and, roses proved to be  deer caviar. Yet often when you ask garden owners how they resist such attack the answers are never consistent, perhaps because in one area or season deer can be hesitant diners with Bambi-like table-manners when a few miles or months away they may have acquired the appetite of ‘Jaws’.

Gill Nicholls lives near Ashridge golf course in the Chilterns– apparently a metropolis for deer feasting and regularly battles to keep her pretty plot just that. Most of the following wisdom is hers with thanks.

·        “Fence your boundary as much as possible” recommends Gill. Muntjac don’t jump and larger deer will not either if they don’t have a clear landing pad so plant bushes (deer-resistant of course) along the line. Put a very secure latch on the gate, get a psychopathic dog and shove a bench or two in any gaps too.

·        Gill recommends the book Gardens and Deer - a guide to damage limitation by Charles Coles ISBN1853109657. The title says it all ie. nothing is totally off the menu – the best you can expect is that your treasures will only receive a cursory nibble once mature.

·        Lock up the children: whatever plants you choose they will always need protecting when young. Most gardeners don’t go a bundle on the paint or spray-on repellents based on ammonium sulphate which can wash off. Instead, surrounding a new planting in mesh or less visible electric fence is a better form of insurance. A good tip is to tie thin plastic bags on plants where not too visible and as deer apparently share our aversion to wasteful packaging they move on. Neither do they care for prickly hollies nor the furry stems of buddleja so you could poke branches of these around a new shrub as a disguise.

·        Avoid shrubs – if perennials get attacked they simply grow back from the base with no fuss. Deciduous grasses like miscanthus plus evergreen hellebores and stately euphorbias are a safe bet along with a host of flowers such as aconitum, alchemilla, delphinium, peony, foxglove and the steely heads of thistle-like echinops.

Euphorbia charachias Wulfenii - a good evergreen perennial.

·        Use smelly plants – any of the herbs, sage, bay and rosemary tend to be ignored. Many Mediterranean shrubs like cistus and lavender are filled with repugnant oils too.

·        Prickly and spiky plants are not as off-putting as you might think. Berberis can be destroyed when young – especially the purple-leaved types and flax (phormium) are the same, however mahonias fare better and bristly Rosa rugosa is the only deer-resistant rose.

·        My top tough plant list would include seemingly tasty looking evergreens like Mexican Orange Blossom (choisya), daphne and sarcococca; all of which have delightful fragrance plus box, holly , euonymus and hebe. Of deciduous shrubs there are many more. The attractive winter stems of native dogwood get left and fairly safe too are forsythias, spireas, cotoneasters, jasmines, kerria, deciduous rhododendrons, philadelphus, hydrangeas and honeysuckles (including Poor Man’s Box – the clippable one which makes us a martyr to the shears.) 

Sarcococca

·        For tasty shrubs, consider training them up into standards as Gill has with a pretty little salix she grows in her knot garden. Even the delectable rose could be safe if grown on a well-protected leg.

·        No trees are safe while young and you will need a prison of fencing or a doubledecker of spiral trunk guard but when established some genus are especially recommended such as amelanchier, magnolia and even the seemingly defenceless Japanese maples.

RHS has a  tentative list of  deer resistant plants. See: www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0105/deer_resistant.asp