Anyone have suggestions for deer-resistant shrubs?

I have decided to stop fighting the deer that like to browse on my property. After several seasons of having my yews and arborvitae decimated, I am giving in and replacing them. I think that I will replace my arborvitae with more of the Juniper pictured here. The deer seem to avoid it. The yews are another matter. I'm looking for low-growing, fairly compact shrubs (preferably evergreen, but not required) that deer will avoid. (I know, if they're starving they'll eat anything, but fortunately my neighbors provide plenty of food for the buffet.) Which shrubs have my fellow NE gardeners had luck with? And if you have an alternate suggestion for the Juniper, please chime in.

Thank you!
carolyn

Check this link.

http://deerresistantplants.com/

In addition to these, I have had no problems with crape myrtle, but you may be a bit too cold. Spruce, Barberry, Clethra, Hardy Hibiscus, Euphorbia. I'll think of more.

Never saw them touch spruce, but they ate my clethra's to the ground over and over. If you plant new shrubs, start right away with a deer repellent and keep it up through the first year. You may be able to train them to stay off. They ate some small dogwoods, and my new Viburnum Blue Muffin's up also this year, and finally killed a very expensive Kalmia that I bought because they weren't supposed to like Kalmis. But they leave my yews and boxwood completely alone. Go figure.

In my yard they have left alone: Itea, Caryopteris, several species of Spirea, Lindera benzoin (spicebush), witchhazel, fothergilla, barberry, established holly, hellebores, all varieties of hemlocks, Hypericum Albury Purple, cotoneaster, Pieris, Aruncus - goatsbeard, Ribes, Chaenomeles, Forsythia, Kolkwitzia, Magnolia Jane, Tree and herbaceous Peonies. So there are quite a few things to choose from if you keep looking around.

They don't read so they don't know what they are not supposed to eat.

VG, that is so true LOL! I think that deer from different areas or perhaps, even individual deer, have varying tastes. In contrast with Alyrics list, "my" deer seem to love pieris, yews, holly and hemlock (Canadian hemlock). Most folks I've discussed this with seem to agree that barberry, boxwood and spruce are relatively safe. I've also had great success with daphnes and weigela. Both of these get slightly grazed in the winter. Since they are deciduous in my zone, there isn't significant damage -- I just get a nice chew pruning. In the spring they bounce back better than ever and then are left alone during the summer.

Apparently they leave all the boxwoods, spruce, and barberry alone around here too, irishbelle.

Victor, if the deer could read, I'd point them on to a grazing spot over a cliff nearby. :-0

Carolyn, you live in a beautiful area. My employer had a branch in Nashua, but it was consolidated into the Manchester branch. I've had occassion to visit Manchester several times, and just love it. Have you tried any of the variegated boxwood? They are stunning and add a little interest among the solid greens. I have a zone 5b microclimate in my area and have had them survive beautifully. I can take a picture over the weekend if you are interested.

irishbelle, a picture would be great, thank you! I too like to mix up the "same old green" look in my garden. I try to vary things with blue-green spruces, etc. I have been thinking about boxwood, and plan to go to the garden center over the weekend to see what they have in stock.

We really like Nashua too. It's close to Boston (but not too close for traffic and cost of living) and a good place to raise a family. I often think of it as the "biggest small town in America" - everyone seems to know everyone else - LOL.

Deer love juniper too. If you just have a couple of these type shrubs, I'd just wrap each one with chicken wire in the fall and take it off mid May. Usually you can form chicken wire so that it's not too visible and the deer won't be able to eat it. They also make black plastic netting which is easier to store and reuse but a little more visible because it's shiny.

I tried the black netting around an Arborvitae that was chewed up two years ago. The deer haven't touched it since, but as you say, the netting is visible.

I didn't know they'd eat Juniper, too. Maybe they haven't touched mine because there are other tastier things to try.

I'm currently in the process of trying to reroute their regular grazing path with Deer Scram. I'm hoping that using that in combination with replacing the yummy shrubs will alter their habits. Too bad they can't read maps.

I've had mixed luck with juniper. The deer barely touch my "old gold" juniper, but last summer I had to pull out about 30 blue rug juniper I had on an embankment, because they ate them down to nothing. They had grown there for about three years untouched and then disaster :-(

We put in Wichita Blue Juniper thinking they were deer proof. They're not. Three out of 4 of them have to come out they're so damaged. We used deer netting to protect the last one. I agree with boxwood, they've never touched ours. They haven't bothered the ivory halo dogwood, the Japanese Maple, the Sweet Spire, neither of the Viburnum or any of the cottoneasters but they did browse the mountain laurel which is also supposed to be deer proof. They leave the butterfly bushes alone as well.