Most any rugosa. They have a lot of thorns, don't like to be sprayed (the leaves turn brown and fall off if sprayed), most are very fragrant, repeat well after a few years when they get mature(mine are going gang busters in their third year), have very large hips, and are extremely hardy. If you check, most Canadian Explorers have a rugosa somewhere in their lineage and many are cane hardy to minus 40 degrees.
On the down side, they sucker readily if own root. Mine are all own root.

The only rose I have found to have any deer resistance is R. eglanteria. Thorniness does not seem to be a determining factor as the deer eat the young canes before the thorns harden. I believe they don't care for R eglanteria because of the fragrance or flavor of the leaves. Naturally, if they are hungry they will eat almost anything that isn't poisonous, and even foxgloves they will taste and spit out.

Is R. eglanteria a wild rose? There is a rose that looks very much like this one that grows wild along pasture fences. I know they're deer resistant because they're still there. I was thinking of transplanting some from our fence line along the road to in front of our lilac hedge.

Rugosa roses sound like a good choice. Are they deer resistant? The deer out here aren't hungry, just curious. If they find a plant they like, they'll eat it, but they have plenty of food in the pastures and fields.

They eat the blooms of rugosas and leave the bush alone.

As you already know, roses are deer candy. They do have favorites, but when they are hungry, they don't care if your garden has the ones they like best. The only roses I have seen them ignore are the micro-minis. I guess there isn't enough rose to entice them.

Planting other plants that have a strong odor in with your roses or arround your roses is supposed to head them off because it messes up their sense of smell.

If you do find a rose they ignore, please let us know.

I use to live in a rural farming community with lots of deer. I had hybrid rugosa gardens, that contained all of the Explorer roses, and would vigilantly try to protect them by using coyote urine, hot pepper sauce, Irish Spring soap, and many other "deterrents".

In the end, the deer munched just about every rose bush. Even with a rotty barking only several feet away!

The deer have never touched my rugosas, not even the blossoms--but then, I offer them other kinds of roses, my veggie garden, apple trees...Go for the older rugosas--the less hybrid, the better--and there are also a few repeat blooming mosses you might try. The deer also leave my gallicas alone but they aren't repeaters, tho most certainly worth growing.

Catrose- good to know about the gallicas. I ordered four for next summer for my "fairy garden" for the nieces. I like that they change color from pink to lavender to purple, so I thought they'd be a good choice. While it's nice to have the repeat bloom, I'd be happy to include old fashioned roses as well. I'd just like a few to bloom later in the summer for a little color. I guess I could stick with the once blooming and find other deer-resistant plants for later summer. One nice thing, when you only have a three and a half month growing season (without frost) four to six weeks of blooms is a long time :)

Eglantine has leaves that smell like green apples, especially when there's been a rain or a morning dew and the sun is evaporating those water droplets off the leaves, but it also is a rose bush that very much looks like "a briar". The bush's appearance is "rustic", and it also is a big rose. If it's happy the shrub will be at least 7' X 7', with canes and branches awkwardly growing this way & that.

I think it's a wonderful rose for a hedgerow or the right landscape, if you have the room for it, but it's not at all "svelte".

(Please also understand that I personally wish that I owned a plot of land where it made aesthetic sense to grow this rose! I LOVE THE IDEA OF LEAVES THAT SMELL LIKE GREEN APPLES!! Unfortunately, I don't live on or own such a piece of land. :( )

So there is no hard and fast rule or escape from what my wife calls rats on stilts.

I have read this before more than once on various states' Extension Service websites!

Apparently, sometimes what in one part of the country is a shrub that deer avoid, is in other states a shrub that deer will definitely at least sample enough that the feeding damages that about the shrub which makes it worth growing.

No, it's not a "wild rose" in the sense that it's a native "wild rose" of North America. It's a native "wild rose" of Europe. To the best of my knowledge it's not especially "invasive" on this continent, unlike one of the wild roses of northeastern Asia, Rosa multiflora, which is highly invasive in northeastern North America.

Last year I interplanted a lot of perennial salvias such as 'May Night' and I didn't have any deer feeding problems. The year before they ate the roses like it was their own personal salad bar. I live in the country, and the deer are numerous...they graze in the yard...eat the hostas...but thankfully they left the roses alone last summer.

Anyone else have any the same experiences with salvia?

Hi TJ, How you doing? I planted some salvia mixed in with my roses and the dang deer kept right on eating. grrrrr! They love my Disneyland rose no matter where I move that baby. There was this story on television the other day about a family that had a deer living in the house with them and guess what their favorite snack was? YEP, rose buds. ARRGH!!!! Take care, Judy

Hello Judy...maybe I was just lucky last year....the deer would graze in the evenings when we would sit in the yard and wouldn't even seem scared...they would eat the hostas, though. They're getting pretty bold around here. They didn't bother any of the roses, but munched the tulips and daylilies...they loove those.

I don't think I could take a deer in the house....it would scratch up my wood floors...!
Hugs,
Terry

Ive seen them eat all classes of roses, even nipped the tops off my harisons yellow, there isnt too many roses with nastier thorns than that one.

Ive found spraying mixture of hot sauce, beef buillion , egg whites for a time will prevent them. but you have to spray every three days or so and after a rainstorm or it wont work. This year they came late and ate everything. But by then I didnt care. Im hoping a hunter got the buck that was coming. A doe came early and ate all of my green beans as well.

At least the rabbits havent found me yet, though ive seen them around!

I agree that roses are deer candy, period. They have eaten buds off every bush in my garden, including the rugosas. My strategy is to plant lots of climbing roses, or huge shrub roses like teas, protected while they are tiny by wire cages. I take the cages off when the bushes get big enough so that deer grazing will not kill the plant. Our mule deer are short, lazy, and not too hungry, so anything over about 3 feet tall gets ignored. The climbers and large shrubs get taller than the deer can reach, and voila - you have a beautiful rose, if one that is sort of bare at the bottom. I plant lots of daffodils around them, which the deer really do not eat, so at least in Spring their bare feet are covered.

Jackie

We have a very high deer population here an my electric fence is the only thing that is foolproof. They eat rugosas, gallicas, etc. The only rose they seem to leave alone is a little miniature rose called "Baby Ballerina". It doesn't have any smell and the leaves are tiny, maybe the deer don't think it's worth their while.