[Helios]

I saw an article in today's paper by Bob Hill, a local nurseryman, concerning a list of deer-proof plants. The list of 87 plants was compiled over 22 years by Mark Bridgen, a professor of horticulture at Cornell University, and is published in American Nurseryman magazine (amerinursery.com List viewable with paid subscription only). If you live/work in a bambi infested area, it might be worth a look. If there are deer-proof plants missing from the list you can you can e-mail the good professor at mph27@cornell.edu. I suppose he would also be interested to know if any of the listed plants are, in fact, eaten by deer.

Professor goes out on a limb with 'deer-proof' list

[Green Man Envy]

"Deer-proof" is too strong a phrase, unless it involves 10-12'(+?) fences.

I'll believe "deer-resistant", but I've seen too many hooved Hoovers that were too hungry to know they weren't supposed to like that bit of green they just munched. On the other hand, I've also watched herds of deer completely ignore hundreds of deer-magnet hostas on a customer site.

If they're hungry enough - and they've eaten everything else - they'll eat it.

[sandim]

I agree with Greenman. I've seen a hungry deer eat anything. I've seen a deer pick the leaves off a holly, spit it out, and go back for more. The poor homeowner not only had a defoliated holly, but a heck of a mess to clean up as well!

[ChestnutHillRd]

This is a much better list than many. However, the other posters are correct: what a deer will eat depends on how hungry it is and how near the the plant material is to established browsing areas and transit paths. In a hard winter or dry period a white tail will eat anything.

[shane472]

Here at the Humber Arboretum there is a huge deer problem and many plants that are supposed to be "deer proof" don't turn out to be. They'll eat them anyways. A teacher of mine today said he estimates they've done about $1,000,000 worth of damage to plant material over the last couple of years. Now there's a $20,000 plan in action to fence off the arboretum if it gets approved.

[Green Man Envy]

I know that Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve - a wee bit further south and east of me - still had some problems after putting in the fence and automatic gates.

When I last visited there, there was a slowly growing family of deer that had managed to get in when the gate opened to let a car in or out.

Still, the problems were much more manageable than before the fence was installed.

My best results have come from surrounding individual trees - obviously, this only works with a minimal number of new trees or shrubs in need of protection. My fences were only 4' high - easy for them to eat over, but they never did. They did eat any leaves poking out of the fences...