It is a native here in the coastal southeast. Grows happily under the dappled shade of Live oaks. Have never seen any deer damage. Should grow well in your area.

I feel your pain. I too have been suffering with the explosion of the deer population.....living in a rural area doesn't help. For years, I used to tolerate the odd nibble on various plants, but now if I don't fence off my L shaped row of cedar trees in front, and the plants within...I would be left with sticks. The deer fencing (bird netting) just didn't work for me, they cut it with their hooves and entered. I had to upgrade to a heavy netting used by fishermen. I built a permanent wooden fence in the back of my yard and am in the process of moving deer favorites to the back. Unfortunately I can't move the trees as they are too old, will just replace in a few years. Ones they aren't supposed to like, but forgot to read the manual and thus eat are...crocus, weigela, kalmia, clematis, blue fescue grass, yucca and iris. They have left alone; spireas, mugo pine, kolkwitzia, crocosmia, bleeding heart, heuchera, hellebore, snow drops, allium, columbine, ferns and artemsia. I does seem to be changing all the time though. Good Luck

I have found that the deer here will eat many plants that are on the lists of deer resistant plants, but at least the lists give you a starting point. And, don't let today fool you. It is going to be in the 70s and 80s today, but many of us have a freeze in the forecast for overnight Saturday into Sunday morning, so keep that in mind when purchasing and planting. In our home landscape, deer simply devour most veggies, especially okra, pepper plants, tomato plants, pumpkin and squash plants, swiss chard, carrots, broccoli, cabbage, etc. They don't touch many herbs like basil, parsley, catmint, lemon balm, borage, catnip, sage, oregano, etc. They do eat hollyhocks, sunflowers (eat them right down to the ground), hardy hibiscus, begonias, nasturtiums, daturas, and hostas, but they don't eat four o'clocks, verbena bonariensis, dusty miller, most salvias, cleome, cannas, zinnias, veronica, honeysuckle, iris, shasta daisies, morning glories, moonflower vine, sweet alyssum, globe amaranth, celosias and amaranths, black-eyed susan vine, cypress vine, cardinal climber vine, mina lobata and canary creeper vine. At our house they will browse on Texas Red Star hibiscus and Castor Bean foliage, but don't care as much for those and usually stop after they eat a couple of leaves. The shrubs we have that they seldom nibble include Burford Holly, Stokes Yaupon Holly, Possumhaw Holly, American Beautyberry, Southern Wax Myrtle, dwarf nandinas, and dwarf junipers. The worse the conditions in terms of drought or just a lack of available browse in the wintertime, the more the deer will nibble plants (out of desperation) that they don't normally bother. At our house they generally don't bother American Cross Vine, Wisteria, both the orange and yellow-flowered Trumpet Creeper or coral honeysuckle. They also don't eat purple wintercreeper. I have the worst trouble in early spring when the deer are desperate for ANYTHING and they tend to nibble and sometimes devour anything I plant, no matter what it is, so most of the plants I care about go into an area with a 7' tall fence. Once Apr./May arrive and there is significant green-up of native vegetation, they generally won't bother as many varieties of plants as they do in Feb./Mar. In general, the deer don't bother native plants and hybrids developed from native plants as much as they devour exotic, expensive, imported ones. I have linked one list for you below. You can google "deer resistant plants" and get many other such lists. Here is a link that might be useful: One List of Deer Resistant Plants

I grow west of Austin in scruffy limestone and caliche marl. Nasty stuff. No water to speak of. I have a shade and Part shade garden and I grow Phlox pilosa, Salvia madness, columbine, Algeratina havanense, beautyberry, alstroemeria, Texas betony many of the native sedges (cedar sedge) are good for a grassy effect. I really like Berkley sedge which isn't native to here, but it is fairly xeric. Nolina lindheimeri and Nolina texana will grow in shade. Big muhly will take some shade, but it grows long and wispy, but still nice, a different character than a sun grown plant.. Penstemon tennis, salvia gregii, salvia romeriana and salvia regla will take some shade. Agave bracetosa takes some shade. One can use evergreen sumac and aromatic sumac in shade. Even agarita will take bright shade. Frostweed and mexican oregano will like part shade.I have some wild asters that are seeding themselves. I like to use the understory trees like toothache tree, redbud, drummonds dogwood and Anacho orchid tree are an effective way to create a woodland feeling. I think that all of the above are deer resistant because I have gobs of deer and the are still with me.