Deer Resistant Plants, Shrubs, & Trees in Victoria

Deer-resistant plants are a great way to protect your garden from unwanted grazing and hoof prints in your plant beds. Many plants are naturally unappealing to deer due to their strong scent, prickly texture, or bitter taste. By incorporating these types of plants, you can create a garden that is both beautiful and less likely to be a deer buffet.

Deer in garden nibbling plants

If you live in or around the Victoria area, you’re probably well aware of our deer population and their appetite. They’ll eat almost anything, but also tend to have an expensive taste, swallowing up roses, daisies, lilies, orchids, and more. Residents go to extreme lengths to defend against the deer and their excellent vertical dexterity, from special fencing and nets to ultrasonic repellent.

However, there’s another way to fend them off that doesn’t include yard construction or endangering the deer – just update the menu. The best way to direct deer past your yard and onto the next is by filling your garden with deer-resistant plants.

It can be tough to find a list of deer-resistant plants that will grow in Victoria, but they are out there. Thanks to our friends at Russell Nursery, here’s a guide to the common deer-resistant shrubs, trees, and other plants you can buy. Keep in mind, deer can develop a taste for almost any plant, so nothing is guaranteed!

As always, we are here to help you design and build your dream landscape so give us a call if you need a hand.

Click the + beside the heading to show the list. Ask us about any of these plants.

Deer Resistant Annuals

Marigolds: Marigolds elicit a strong scent, which is a natural deer repellent.
Snapdragons: Thankfully, their dragon’y shaped flowers are a deer deterrent.
Zinnias: Deer tend to avoid the strong-smelling and somewhat prickly foliage of zinnias.
Cosmos: The strong scent and coarse texture of cosmos make them less appealing to deer.
Dahlias: Deer tend to avoid dahlias.
Verbena: The small flower clusters come in a wide range of colours, including white, pink, blue, lavender, purple, dark red, yellow and bicolor.

Shrubs

deer resistant bamboo

Abelia
Manzanita – (Arctostaphylos)
Bamboo
Barberry – (Berberis)
Butterfly Bush – (Buddleia )
- The Butterfly Bush is a lovely, aromatic shrub that produces either round, orange flower clusters or teardrop-like clusters of flowers of a great many colours from white to deep purple.
Bottlebrush – (Callistemon)
Boxwood – (Buxus)
California Lilac – (Ceanothus)
Californica(Carpenteria)
Cotoneaster
Currant – (Ribes Officinalis)
Daphne
Heavenlybamboo – (Nandina)
Escallonia
Evergreen Huckleberry – (Vaccinium ovatum)
Firethorn – (Pyracantha)
Flannel Bush – (Fremontodendron)
Flowering Quince – (Chaenomeles)
Germander – (Teuchrium)
Heather – (Calluna/Erica)
Holly – (Ilex)
Hypericum
Kerria
Laeagnus
Lavender – (Lavandula)
Lilac – (Syringa)
Mahonia
Potentilla
Rhododendron
Rockrose – (Cistus)
Rosemary – (Rosemarinus)
Sage – (Salvia)
Sarcococca
Shallon Salal – (Gaultheria)
Ternata Mexican Orange – (Choisya)
TreeMallow – (Lavatera)
Viburnum