Deer Resistant-Tolerant Plants (2024)

The following list of deer resistant/tolerant plants and comments was provided by Las Pilitas Nursery and Bert Wilson:

• Acacia greggii. A well-armed shrub-tree. Deer will only eat new growth.

• Amorpha california. Deciduous shrub. Deer have never touched. Difficult to grow and hard to find.

• Baccharis pilularis ‘Pigeon Point.’ Cover for first year with chicken wire so deer cannot pull out of the ground. Plant 1-gallon size, 8 feet apart, and in 2 to 3 years you will have a fine groundcover.

• Ceanothus ‘Blue Jeans.’ Has been deer proof at all but one site to date. If heavily watered or in rich soils, deer will eat in late summer/fall.

• Ceanothus ‘Mills Glory.’ Have been deer proof at all known sites.

• Ceanothus ‘Snowball.’ Deer proof on all sites, but is only happy at coast.

• Cupressus species. Deer do not like these at all. Drive 3 T-posts next to these after they get 4-5 feet tall. Bucks love to clean the dead skin off their antlers on the posts. They will use the tree if the posts are not present.

• Diplacus species. Monkey flowers have not been enjoyed by deer yet.

• Erigeron glaucus. ‘Wayne Roderick’ seems to be most deer proof in most instances. Other varieties go from untouched to nothing left.

• Ferns. California native ferns seem to be safe.

• Iris species. Deer have not eaten these even if bedding in the vicinity. Unknown if safe on sites where they are not native.

• Monardella species. Untouched.

• Satureja douglasii. Will be deer proof if you stop watering in summer and allow it to go dormant.

• Sequoia sempervirens. Same as Cupressus.

• Sequoiadendron giganteum. Same as Cupressus.