Selecting the proper plants for your landscape can be the best deer deterrent.

With the right selection of plants in your garden you can minimize the damage done by deer browsing.  No plants are completely deer-proof but many are less appealing and less palatable.

Deer-resistant plant survey results

Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden’s Best Deer Resistant Plants List

Annuals

Ageratum (ageratum)*
Antirrhinum majus (snapdragon)
Cleome (spider flower)*
Lantana (shrub verbena) ‘Landmark Gold’*
Lantana (shrub verbena) ‘New Gold’*
Lobularia maritime (sweet alyssum)
Nicotiana alata (flowering tobacco)
Plectranthus argentatus (silver spectranthus)
Salvia farinacea (blue salvia)
Senecio cineraria (dusty miller)
Vinca (periwinkle)
Zinnia angustifolia (creeping zinnia)

Bulbs

Allium (ornamental onion)
Chionodoxa (glory of the snow)
Colchicum (autumn crocus)
Galanthus (snowdrop)
Hyacinthoides (Spanish sqill)
Leucojum (snowflake)
Muscari (grape hyacinth)
Narcissus (daffodil)*
Puschkinia (striped sqill)

Evergreen trees

Magnolia grandiflora (southern magnolia) ‘Bracken’s Brown Beauty’

Picea abies (Norway spruce)
Picea pungens (blue spruce)
Pseudotsuga menziesii (Douglas fir)

Sun perennials

Achillea (yarrow)*
Alchemilla (lady’s mantle)
Amsonia (blue star)*
Aquilegia (columbine)
Artemesia (wormwood)*
Asclepias tuberosa (butterfly weed)
Aster lateriflorus (aster)
Aster oblongifolius (aromatic aster)
Asteromoea mongolica (false aster)
Baptisia australis (blue wild indigo)
Calamintha (calamint)
Coreopsis lanceolata (lanceleaf coreopsis)
Crocosmia (falling stars)
Dianthus (pink) ‘Bath’s Pink’*
Dianthus (pink) ‘Firewitch’*
Dianthus (pink) ‘Mountain Mist’*
Euphorbia amygdaloides (wood spurge)
Euphorbia corollata (flowering spurge)
Geranium x cantabrigiense ‘Biokova’
Geranium sanguineum (bloody cranesbill)
Iris (flag)*
Lavandula (lavender)*
Liatris (gay feather)
Monarda (beebalm)
Oenothera (evening primrose)
Paeonia (Peony)*
Perovskia atriplicifolia (Russian sage)*
Rudbeckia hirta (black eyed susan)
Salvia officinalis (common sage)*
Solidago (goldenrod)
Stachys byzantia (lamb’s ears) ‘Helen von Stein’*
Stachys byzantina (lamb’s ears) ‘Silver Carpet’*
Thymus serpyllum (wild tyme)*
Veronica (speedwell)

Shrubs

Abelia (glossy abelia)
Aesculus parviflora (bottlebrush buckeye)
Berberis (barberry)*
Buddleia davidii (butterfly bush)*
Callicarpa dichotoma (beautyberry)*
Calycanthus floridus (sweet shrub)
Caryopteris x clandonensis (bluebeard) ‘Blue Mist’*
Cotinus coggygria (smoke tree)
Forsythia (forsythia)
Hypericum perforatum (st. johnswort)
Lespedeza thunbergii (bush clover) ‘ Gibraltar ’
Lindera benzoin (spice bush)*
Myrica pensylvanica (bayberry)*
Spiraea (spirea)*
Symphoricarpos orbiculatus (Indian currant coralberry)
Vitex agnus-castus (chaste tree)*
Yucca (yucca)

Vines

Bignonia capreolata (cross-vine)
Campsis radicans (trumpet vine)
Clematis paniculata (sweet autumn clematis)
Lonicera sempervirens (trumpet honeysuckle)
Wisteria (wisteria)

* Plants that are most frequently considered deer-resistant.

Reference: “Dealing with Deer in the Landscape” by Steve Foltz & Brian Jorg.  American Nurseryman.  Nov. 2005