Among those you listed, the echinacea and rudbeckia are usually only slightly damaged if you protect them until they bloom and are tough. The other plants -- you're fighting a losing battle and going to a lot of expense to protect them. If you can't put up a fence around the roses, asters, lilies and veggies, then you might want to start replacing with deer tolerant plants.

Deer resistance happens to be my "thing" because I want a flower garden and have spent the last few years experimenting. I'm very happy with the garden, but it really takes an adjustment in your definition of a flower garden.

Instead of hosta, I grow pulmonaria.
Instead of roses, I grow salvia greggii and buddleia.
Instead of asters, I grow shasta daisies and coreopsis.
... etc.

Agastache, nepeta, allium, buddleia, salvia, lavender...I have a long list of plants that the deer won't eat. There's a link under "Blog Pages" in the left sidebar of my blog.

In fact, the July 2010 issue of Southern Living Magazine is supposed to feature my deer resistant garden. They were here last July to take the photos.

If you want a good repellent (I use none), try the brand "I Must Garden" -- I have no affiliation with it, although it is made locally.

Cameron

Here is a link that might be useful: My Deer Garden is Full of Flowers

Oh-- the fawns will pull new plants out of the ground and taste plants that the adults wouldn't. Although they're so cute, sometimes they can be a real pain! :-)

I wanted to add that rabbits do more damage in my garden than deer. They will eat asters, phlox, echinacea and rudbeckia and I DO use a rabbit repellent from that same brand that I mentioned. Rabbit damage is clean cut, as with snippers. Deer tear at a plant and it will have shredded leaves.

I do feel for you and hope you can rearrange/replace or protect your flowers enough to enjoy them.

Cameron- Do you have any barn kitties? We don't have rabbits or any other smaller intruders in the garden, as the cats do a good job of chasing them back into the fields. The deer have been in the garden, but I use a lot of the plants you've listed...and so far, no damage. I also don't have very many deer. I'm glad that so many of the deer resistant plants you've mentioned also bring in butterflies, bumblebees and other beneficials :)

We have a deer fence now (heavy deer pressure), but before it was put up my deer would eat:

-Hostas
-Daylilies
-Japanese anemones
-Callirhoe involucrata
-Chrysanthemum
-Clematis terniflora
-Echinacea
-Eucomis
-Geranium
-Helianthus
-Iris reticulata
-Lilium
-Liriope
-Muscari
-Oxalis regnelli 'Triangularis'
-Patrina
-Persicaria amplexicaulis 'Firetail'
-Phlox paniculata
-Roses
-All upright Sedums
-Symphyotrichum divaricatus
-Yucca 'Golden Sword'
-Lots of evergreen conifers
-Camellias
-Hydrangeas
-Some hollies
-Ligustrum
-Indian Hawthorne
-Some magnolias

And then, their rutting behavior in the fall was just as destructive as their browsing behavior.

I spent alot of time and money experimenting with different methods to protect the plants (Milorganite, blood meal, sprays, electric fence, etc). For us, the deer fence was ultimately worth the expense.

Roses are and will alwasy be a love of mine..

I will continue to extend deer netting in the woods until its surronded, Im just kinda on a large lot, lol.. it will be done eventually..

Im also hoping that the builder is going to extend our community past us.. so instead of us being last on the dead end street, there will be another housing lot area.. He said he wants to but is in fight with the town.. if they do it there will be another set of houses between one side of our vast woods, I would only have to really worry about the other side of it.. So this pain is more than likely temporary!

Silverkelt

So this pain is more than likely temporary!

Don't count your buds before they bloom... deer are very much creatures of habit and they never forget the route to an easy meal. (Because they're also lazy, eating cultivated gardens is much simpler than foraging.) Another row of houses will be but a minor inconvenience to them.

I will continue to fence off my area..

Its not a row a houses, but a whole new subdivision around a mile wide..

I was kinda hoping they would stop at their yards first lol..

Silverkelt

They might, but only on the way to your house for dessert. LOL

Spazzycat, I'm jealous. I have a large lot and figure if I win the lottery I'll have the pros come in and install a good deer fence. Until then.......

The deer love to munch on anything and everything it seems. Just depends on how hungry they are.
BUT....I started to use Plantskydd and the deer have definitely stayed away. It's supposed to last for 6 months but I just recently had to re-apply after about 3 months. The deer had only nibbled one hydrangea on the very outskirts but I didn't want to take any chances.

It's pretty expensive (which is why I had tried other sprays for years first) and really gross. Basically blood in a bottle. But a local nursery said the only thing that keeps the deer away from her gardens was fresh blood. So I gave it a shot and it is definitely working. I outline the outskirts of the garden as opposed to spraying the plants individually (too many shrubs they like). I just recently scattered some around the bird feeding areas and so far no chipmunks or squirrels have been back. I'm beginning to like this stuff!

Another housing development means that more food in fields and woodlands will be destroyed, so you'll probably have even more deer instead of less.

My roses are inside a permanent fence. Of course, that fence won't keep out the Japanese beetles that are munching away! I'm already tired of the "squish and dunk" routine.

This is the first year we've seen our lilacs bloom since they were planted 7-8 years ago. The deer always 'pruned' them too well! Early last fall DH put up tall fencing around several of the lilac shrubs. 6' fencing is not really attractive but he'll do it again late summer. He also puts mesh fencing over the Autumn Joy before it blooms as it's deer candy. The funny thing is that they've been in our house yard recently (obvious hoofprints) and didn't touch the blooming lilacs but did nibble a bit on one of my new ninebarks. Hope they didn't like the flavor as they ignored the other ninebark that's 6' away.

Earlier this spring 'something' ate the tops off the emerging garlic. Not sure it was the deer, could have been the bear I guess. There's been no further damage and the plants are growing fine.

Fortunately the deer haven't yet found my lilies which are hidden between other plants deer supposedly don't like. I've also planted 21 new lavender this year which I'm hoping will help repel them.

I've decided against doing roses this year, at least until the fencing is finished. Might put a rose bed in the fenced dog's yard next to the house as they'd have to jump two fences to get them. Altho that might not stop them.

Right now I'm more annoyed at the marmots who have nibbled on my lovely hens and chickens in pots. The plants looked so nice and now look awful. DH has a radio going 24/7 out in the shed as they were making it their home and that seems to deter them.

When the neighbors horses arrive they'll keep a lot of the critters at bay, especially when they are grazing around our house yard. They go back to their home by fall and that's when the deer are looking for better tasting things so that's when the unattractive fencing will be placed around each plant. I don't want tall fencing around our entire yard as I don't think it would be very attractive so we need to learn how to grow a garden that will withstand these critters.

Cameron, I've looked at your blog many times especially because of your recommendations for deer proof plants. Thank you.

Bears! Yikes! Do they eat gardeners?

Cameron, I'm sure trying to avoid that scenario! They may *try* to eat anything especially if it is smaller than they are! They are omnivorous and dangerous. Since we are living in their territory we are quite careful. When I saw one near our house last year I shouted at it (after I had surreptitiously taken pics!) and it immediately ran off. This summer we are burying our compost so the area near our house is less attractive. When we were away this spring the bear rooted thru the compost bin. Had seldom happened before but they are hungry in the spring.

I took this pic thru the window last fall and he's about 30' from the house. He looks small in the pic but I 'guesstimate' he's over 300 lbs. and close to 5' tall when standing. Not fully grown last year, may be one of the cubs we had seen about 3 years previously. He's probably a lot bigger this year!

Here is a link that might be useful: bear near our house

I'd rather look out the window and see the deer!

We occasionally get a bear coming through the area. Once (at a previous house) when my son was about 10 years old, he came inside and told me the neighbor's bull was out. I went outside to round up the bull to put him back in the pasture...but, the droppings WERE NOT from a bull! Later that day, our neighbor called to say a bear was passing through our property.

The lilies that have been passed down from my great grandmother. How she managed to keep them from the deer on her homestead, I'll never know.

I am probably jinxing myself, but I don't get a lot of deer damage. I am literally three blocks from the county park and I get hoofprints all the time but not too much nibbling.

In the spring my phlox gets a free pruning and my centurea montana (bachelor's button) gets eaten down to the ground (that might be rabbits), but once I start spraying with Deer Solution I don't seem to have much of an issue fortunately.

It helps that my echinacea is planted right under a low hanging birch tree - the deer get a face full of branches and move on I suspect.

Other parts of my town I have literally seen 10 or more deer just standing around on people's lawn, thank goodness that isn't me.

So far so good,

the moment I type this they have probable found away around..

I have strung up twine 100 feet or so in front , where they have been coming in, 3 layers to around 6 feet high. They have actually been browing in front of the string and I see hoof marks and feces, but they havent come in yet, I have no doubt they could jump it if they wanted to, or try to, but hopefully this will help. I still have to do the bark yard, but ive strung the twine around the veggie garden now as well.

Silverkelt

Oh, I can't help it. I like deer! I don't like that they eat my flowers, but they're just trying to survive and feed their families. :-) It's been better for me since I put a cheapo bamboo fence on line between my garden and the woods. They would jump the chain fence, no problem, but they don't seem to want to jump any higher.

We have a big development happening a few miles from here and all the animals from acres and acres of woods are being displaced. I can hear fights between them at night and my regular herd of deer seem to be missing. All for stupid stores we don't even need! >:-

Scully, I hate the deer but not because of my garden. There are so many here that driving can be dangerous.

Two weeks after my oldest got his driving license, a deer ran right in front of his car. Fortunately he had noticed a different deer on the side of the road, knew that they normally traveled in packs and had already started slowing down. A year later, a deer literally was hit on a busy highway and bounced onto the other side where my son was driving home. Fortunately, all the drivers were able to stop in time.

People have died in my town due to hitting deer.

Yes, that's true. I hear about that around here as well. The problem is, they aren't malicious animals, know what I mean? It's not like they're plotting to get in front of our modern machines (cars) and hurt us. They're just doing what they have for a millenia -- going from one place to another. I think it's just a case of humans and animals not mixing well. :-/

Scully, I agree that there is certainly no malicious intent on the deer's part. Sadly, more and more of their habitat keeps getting destroyed and with more and more of their natural predators destroyed (I say bring back coyotes), it's a real problem.

Today a deer ran maybe 15 feet in front of my car as I drove down one of the developments around here to pick up my younger son. I just stopped because I figured another deer would be showing up shortly and I was right.

I recently had the deer pull up and spit out an entire new bed of "deer resistant" plants. I managed to replant most of them and held them down with rocks until they get established. The same plants are established in other parts of the yard and they never touch them.

I keep my deer favorites in containers on the deck which is too high for them. There are reports that they will climb one or two steps, but my deck has four steps.

It's a constant learning process. I also use empty wire hanging baskets to cover new plants until they get established.

They're eating my hosta. This has never happened before, but I went out Sunday morning to find two hostas half missing and a pile of droppings that definitely didn't come from a rabbit. Then Monday morning I saw two of them racing through my yard. Someone walking a dog had startled them out of the field behind our development. Fortunately that time they didn't stop for a snack. Guess I'll get to find out just how well "Deer-Off" works.

Totally Confused