Beginner Gardening: Landscapoing under Oaks and Hungry Deer, 0 by rteets

rteets wrote:
Ok. I will add a bit from my experience with deer. I cannot predict what your deer will eat. Deer populations have different tastes. I have BIG gardens filled with plants that the deer here will not eat. I got them thru a little bit of planning (I won't put anything in that doesn't portend to be deer resistant) and partly thru trial and error. I plant something, keep it sprayed long enough to give it a chance and then leave it. If the deer eat it I don't plant any more of that. You will find things they don't eat. Trust in that. Gardening under the oaks might prove a similar process. I can give you some suggestions of things that I have had success with under similar circumstances.

First, deer don't like things with fuzzy leaves. For shade that would include pulmonaria and Brunnera. I have several types of pulmonaria and I love them. Kind of like hosta only with hosta you might as well set the table and give the deer a glass of wine to enjoy while they eat. Deer love hosta! Get pulmonaria. I have Brunnera 'Jack Frost' and it is a lovely shade plant that blooms true blue - a rarity. Hellebores (as was already mentioned) is excellent and very deer resistant. Perennial geraniums are also good and along with lamium ( I particularly like 'Shell Pink') can take dry shade like the troopers they are. The second picture shows the soft pink of a hellebore, the blue of a pulmonaria and the purple of a lamium. The third picture shows the lamium mostly and the first shows a different lamium( with yellow leaves) and a Brunnera along with a bleeding heart (which I have found to be quite deer resistant). Keep testing plants and trying. You can get there if you are patient.