All our lilac bushes that are our mule deer can access are trimmed of leaves as high as they can reach standing on their hind legs. I'd read several articles that deer won't eat potato plant leaves. We learned the hard way that this is not so. We had to put up an eight foot fence in a small area where we had planted potatoes outside the main garden.

Hello gardening friends - I can safely say in the Hudson Valley of NY that your Black Eyed Susans are NOT safe from the deer even with a nice variety of other available plants to them. I have a 4 ft high fenced yard (can't be any higher due to local zoning), 2 dogs who are out in the yard daily so plenty of their scent around, and after recently clearing weeds, just overnight the deer have decimated my susies, every single plant, no matter where in the yard they were. I may try mixing some basil around them for next year, but there's not much else I can do for this season. Just wanted to share!!

I have to laugh--I live in the hills above Salem, Oregon where deer are rampant. My property is covered in every plant mentioned in the first paragraph of this article--arborvitae, fir, hostas, daylilies, and English ivy--and the deer don't eat them! Of course, we don't have white-tailed deer here, so maybe they enjoy a different diet.

I had a beautiful full huge Hydranga purple plant in the front yard. It was blooming. It wa very large. Once I planted it in ground, before I could get some fencing around it. The deer had eaten it down to the ground and left nothing but a few sticks.

I read deers do not like prickly plants..... ha ha ha I have an old rose with mighty thorns and deers have eaten a couple of stalks all the way to the ground. Another thing deers love is a young pear tree. Bought a sand pear tree for hubby, about 7 foot tall, they ate the whole tree all the way to the ground. Nothing left. Dogwoods, roses, but not my hydrangeas YET, they love the leaves of my purple potatoes vines and Indian Awthorn. Had to replace all my landscape in front of house. They love also the camelias, small azaleas, All bulb plants. especially agapanthers I am really sick of deers. So far they have left alone plumbago???? but I a sure they might be next.
They stop at my house, I guess I have the right kind of buffet for them. The houses down the street stay intact.

I've tried a variety of the plants on deer-resistant lists sometimes with success and then suddenly not. I mentioned the problem to the chief horticulturalist at Mt. Vernon Mansion and told him that this year the deer chomped down on my rhododendrons. I planted some rudbekias making sure they were the cultivar on the deer-resistant lists only to have them eaten. He laughed and said, "Deer don't read those lists." He explained that some years they seem to eat one plant and other years don't touch them.

I would like to know if there is list of flowers and shrubs that will grow in winters at 5 degrees and very hot summers and are also deer tolerant.

from Zone 6 near Buffalo, NY. We have dozens of deer, but they have never eaten the Yucca in my yard. Daylilies in the front, unfenced yard have not had the chance to bloom in many years. Buds are eaten as soon as they form. Hosta, save for the toughest leaved varieties, are eaten to the ground. Hibiscus on occasion get a bud or two eaten, but not much on them. Boxwood at present time (2015) is never touched. Spruce were never eaten until the winter of 2013 - 14. Bad winter, many trees on the street were eaten up as far as deer could reach.

I can say that in SW Ohio Rudbeckia, Ecchinacea, ANY variety of rose, Obedient plant, corkscrew willow & crabapple saplings, ruellia, hardy hibiscus, dahlias, clematis & Asiatic lilies are NOT deer resistant. Many of these are on your list. The deer have devoured my flowerbeds. Other than the lilies they've never bothered these plants before this year. They havent touched daylilies, hostas or asclepias, however. And daylilies & hostas are supposed to be their favorites.

Just wondering if the deer need to make reservations for this delicacy served in Restaurants.