Old Gardener, New Deer Tricks- the REAL Story of Deer Resistance

Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn. 

Benjamin Franklin

Deer hoof print

I have had a great time gardening in my own garden in the last year. I am learning about perennials, salt tolerance, wind tolerance, rock gardening, storm surge, sand as soil, flowering rotations, and anger management. Yes, anger management. On any given day, I don't need the North Koreans, Democrats or Republicans to start my day off wrong. All I need to do is to walk out into my infant garden to see what was chomped the night before. Mind you, I have spent hours and hours choosing from "Deer Resistant" lists, although always noting the caveat that deer "might" nibble on just about anything with starvation pressures. But here we are in the middle of a lush summer, with the woods spreading out behind me for miles.
I have resorted to caging some plants, netting others, and even spraying the rest, all with spotty results at best.
My years in psychology push me to inquire....What do deer really want? Is it the tender leaf? Is it the newly planted gem? Is it the one that has gotten knee high, or those ground covers that can be hoovered up with a sway of the head? Psychology is perfectly subjective enough to answer this question. It seems that the deer only want what I want- nothing more, nothing less. They will bypass a large delicious place filler for the insignificant deer resistant gomphrena seedlings

Gomphrena globosa 'QIS Orange'

 I had nursed from their package to the "nip-it-in" the bud stage. I planted the deer resistant Scabiosa seedlings among the established Artemesia 'Silver Brocade'

Scabiosa atropurpurea and Artemesia 'Silver Brocade'

to protect them early on. That worked well until the monsters decided it was a delicious combination, and razed the entire bed. Last fall I had the brilliant idea of sowing poppies in the empty spaces I hoped to fill up in spring. Deer "never" touch poppies. Yet the "million seed" mix I purchased never produced one uneaten flower from any species but Eschscholzia californica- the California poppy- (hope it seeds in!!)
They'll wait until the night before I plan to make pesto for a company dinner to take every leaf of the sweet basil,

Sweet Basil

and, for good measure, pick most of the purple basil leaves off and spit them on the ground. They'll try to fake me out by just snipping off the new, very yellow tops of Sedum 'Angelina' or the red of

Sedum 'Sun Sparkler Firecracker'

Sedum 'Sunsparkler Firecracker', so as to make me wonder what happened to the color over night. And, hey- Martha Stewart, my Salvia elegans (pineapple sage)

Salvia elegans

was 2 1/2 ' when it started. Hasn't been over 5" since, and gets regularly mowed, leaves, stems and all. Yucca 'Color Guard', Hesperaloe parviflora flower stalk

Hesperaloe parviflora

, Sedum 'Sunsparkler Firecracker', Podocarpus macrophyllus 'Akame', Asclepias 'Gay Butterflies', Amsonia hubrichtii, Coreopsis 'Zagreb', Bronze Fennel, French Tarragon, Heliotropium arborescens....all mowed down; all "deer resistant". 

So I am making my own list, based on completely unscientific, but replicated trials of my own. That's the list I think we need.
I would love your feedback, too.


PLANTS DEER DO NOT EVER TOUCH

Shrubs

Buxus sempervirens ‘Variegata’

Cephalotaxus harringtonia ‘Duke Gardens’

Caryopteris x clandonensis 'Worchester Gold'

Cestrum parqui 'Orange Peel'

Edgeworthia chrysantha

Ficus carica

Illicium parviflorum ‘Florida Sunshine’

Juniperus virginiana ‘Hillspire’

Malvaviscus arboreus var drummondii

Michelia (Magnolia) figo

Olea europeaea

Spiraea thunbergia ‘Ogon’

Perennials

Acorus gramineus ‘Oborozuki’

Agastache rupestris

Ajuga reptans ‘Black Scallop’

Allium tuberosum

Amsonia hubrictii

Ardisia crenata

Artemesia x 'Powis Castle'

Carex elata

Carex glauca ‘Blue Danube’

Colocasia esculenta

Colocasia esculenta ‘Black Magic’

Colocasia esculenta ‘Mojito’

Crinum species

Crocosmia x ‘Lucifer’

Disporum cantoniense

Epimedium sulphureum

Euphorbia myrsinites

Euphorbia robbiae

Euphorbia wulfenii

Farfugium gigantean

Festuca glauca ‘Boulder Blue’

Iris germanica cvs

Iris louisiana ‘C’est Magnifique’

Iris tectorum

Juncus effusus

Molinia caerulea ‘Strahlenquelle’

Nasella tenuissima

Nepeta faassenii ‘Walker’s Low’

Osmunda regalis

Panicum virgatum ‘Shenandoah’

Phlomis russeliana

Rosmarinus officinalis

Salvia guaranitica 'Amistad'

Salvia greggii

Teucrium fruticans

Santolina rosmarinifolia

Illicium parviflorum 'Florida Sunshine'

 http://www.marthastewart.com/265284/deer-resistant-garden
http://deerresistantplants.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/st_main.html?p_catid=9

https://pender.ces.ncsu.edu/files/library/71/Deer%20Resistant%20Plants.pdf
http://pss.uvm.edu/ppp/articles/deerplants.html

Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow. 

Anthony J. D'Angelo

I continue to trial plants to learn what really works. 
l hope this also means the plants in my garden will never cease to grow, too !