Deer Resistant Plants

Showing 89–96 of 154 results

  • Luzula nivea Snowy woodrush 5-8

    Very unusual & ornamental grass. Dense white flower clusters in June-July. Leaves are evergreen with hairy margins.  One of few grasses for shady areas.

    $10.95/bareroot

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    Very unusual & ornamental grass. Dense white flower clusters in June-July. Leaves are evergreen with hairy margins.  One of few grasses for shady areas.

    Size: 24” x 24”
    Care: part shade to shade in moist well-drained to well-drained soil.
    Native: Central and southern Europe, Alps

    Named by Linnaeus in 1753.  Genus name Latin meaning “light.”  Nivea means “snow white.”  According to Liberty Hyde Bailey the flowers are “useful in dried bouquets.”(1933)

  • Melica ciliata Silky spike melic grass Z 5-9

    Ornamental arching white spikes from June through mid-summer. Especially nice for its early bloom, long before most grasses.

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    Ornamental arching white spikes from June through mid-summer. Especially nice for its early bloom, long before most grasses.

    Size: 2' x 12"
    Care: full sun in moist well-drained to moist soil.
    Native: Eurasia to North Africa
    Wildlife Value: Deer resistant

    Melica is Greek for “sweet grass.” This species collected before 1753.

  • Mertensia virginica syn. Mertensia pulmonarioides Virginia bluebells Z 3-7

    Clusters of pink buds turn to sky blue trumpets in May.  Ephemeral, disappearing in summer to return next spring.

    $10.25/bareroot

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    Available for purchase in Spring only

    Clusters of pink buds turn to sky blue trumpets in May.  Ephemeral, disappearing in summer to return next spring.

    Size: 18" x 10" spreads slowly
    Care: Moist well-drained soil in part shade.
    Native: N.Y. to Tennessee, west to Kansas, Wisconsin native
    Wildlife Value: Provides nectar and pollen to honeybees, bumble and mason bees, as well as Skipper butterflies and Sphynx moths. Deer resistant.
    Awards: Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit.

    Cherokee cured whooping cough and consumption with Virginia bluebells.  Other Natives treated whooping cough, venereal disease, and plain poor health with this. First collected for gardens by John Banister in colonial Virginia C. 1690.  Named Mertensia after Franz Karl Mertens (1764-1831), a German botanist who never set foot in America. Grown by both Washington and Jefferson.

  • Miscanthus sinensis subsp. purpurascens syn. Miscanthus ‘Purpurascens’ Flame grass Z 4-9

    Flame grass starts in spring tinged with red in the leaves, increasing as summer passes.  By fall the leaves turn brilliant orange-red, darkening to burgundy by winter. It retains its color for a few months. Tassel-like inflorescences appear in late summer, opening into creamy plumes by fall. It is upright and clump-forming.

    $12.75/bareroot

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    Flame grass starts in spring tinged with red in the leaves, increasing as summer passes.  By fall the leaves turn brilliant orange-red, darkening to burgundy by winter. It retains its color for a few months. Tassel-like inflorescences appear in late summer, opening into creamy plumes by fall. It is upright and clump-forming.

    Size: 4-5’ x 3-4’
    Care: sun to part shade in any soil - sandy to clay soils. Cut back in late winter to spring.
    Native: Japan
    Wildlife Value: Deer resistant and tolerant of Walnut trees.

    Miscanthus is Greek meaning stem (“miskos) and flower (“anthos”).  Miscanthus mentioned in Man’yoshu, a Japanese anthology of poems written in the 8th century, where it symbolized the melancholy of autumn. This specific plant described by Swedish botanist Nils Johan Andersson (1821-1880) in 1855 in Öfvers. Kongl. Vetensk.-Akad. Förh. 12:167.

  • Monarda didyma ‘Cambridge Scarlet’ Beebalm Z 4-9

    Whorls of scarlet tubes & bracts looking like fireworks, in summer

    $12.75/bareroot

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    Whorls of scarlet tubes & bracts looking like fireworks, in summer

    Size: 3-4' x spreading
    Care: sun to part shade in well-drained soil.
    Native: N. E. America
    Wildlife Value: Checkered white, Fritillary and Melissa blue butterflies relish Beebalm’s nectar.

    Cherokee used the species medicinally, to cure colic, flatulence, nosebleed, measles, flu, hysteria and to induce restful sleep.  Monarda was named in honor of Nicholas Monardes (1493-1588), a Spanish botanist who wrote about plants of the New World. Discovered by John Bartram (1699-1777) being used by colonists in Oswego N.Y. to make tea.  Oswego Indians taught the colonists how to make tea from the dried leaves.  Bartram sent this Beebalm to Peter Collinson in England in whose garden it grew in 1744.  By 1757 its English availability was “nearly universal” among gardeners.   During the American Revolution used as a substitute for tea. Grown at America’s 1st botanic garden, Elgin Botanic Garden 1811.This cultivar ‘Cambridge Scarlet’ recommended by Gertrude Jekyll in 1908.

  • Monarda fistulosa Wild bergamont Z 3-9

    Whorls of hooded lavender tubes in July - August

    $12.75/bareroot

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    Whorls of hooded lavender tubes in July – August

    Size: 3-4' x 2' spreading
    Care: Sun to part shade any soil.
    Native: central U.S., Wisconsin native
    Wildlife Value: Checkered white, Tiger swallowtail, Giant swallowtail and Melissa blue butterflies relish Wild bergamot’s nectar. Supports over 70 bee species including Rusty patched Bumble Bee.

    Used medicinally by many Native tribes- Blackfoot, Cherokee, Chippewa, Choctaw, Crow, Dakota and Flathead. Cherokee: to cure colic, flatulence, nosebleed, measles, flu, hysteria and to induce restful sleep Blackfoot called it “Single-young-Man.”  Teton Dakotas boiled the leaves and flowers for medicine to cure abdominal pain. Ho-Chunk boiled the leaves to make a medicine for pimples.  Choctaws cured chest pain in children. The Flathead cured colds and sore teeth with Wild Bergamot. HoChunk inhaled fumes in a sweat bath to cure colds. Oneidas made a tea. For the Sioux it was nourishment and a panacea:  tea, stomachache, fever, indigestion, sore throats, fainting, whooping cough, wounds, sore eyes, ulcers, and snakebites. First documented by French explorers before 1635.  Plant exported to Europe by Tradescant the Younger in 1637.  Grown by Washington at Mount Vernon.  Today it is a flavor in Earl Grey tea.

  • Nepeta nervosa Catmint Z 4-9

    Chubby spikes of many clear blue-purple flowers blooming June-September. Deadhead to rebloom

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    Chubby spikes of many clear blue-purple flowers blooming June-September. Deadhead to rebloom

    Size: 16-20” x 18-24”
    Care: sun in moist to moist well-drained soil
    Native: China
    Wildlife Value: deer & rabbit resistant, attracts bees & butterflies

    Nepetas may have been named after Nepete, an old Etrusrian city. Nervosa means with conspicuous veins. Collected before 1833.

  • Nepeta racemosa syn. N. mussinii Catmint Z 4-8

    Lavender blue from May through September, cut back for rebloom

    $12.75/bareroot

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    Lavender blue from May through September, cut back for rebloom

    Size: 18" x 18"
    Care: Full sun in well-drained soil
    Native: Caucasus
    Wildlife Value: attracts butterflies and bees
    Awards: Royal Horticultural Society Award of Merit.

    Nepetas may have been named after Nepete, an old Etrusrian city. Mussinii named for the plant’s discoverer, Russian Count Apollos Apollosovitch Mussin-Pushkin.  In gardens before 1810 and a favorite Victorian bedding plant by the late 1800’s.  Catmints contain various amounts of an essential oil  (nepetalactone) both a cat stimulant and a mosquito repellant.