Rescue Your Plantings from Deer Browsing: Deer Resistant Annuals and Deer Repellent Spray (recipes)

Planting annual beds in the spring is the highlight of a gardener’s year. After a cold and brown winter, it is a relief to experience the April green-up, and also the pastel showy blossoms of flowering trees.  Annual planting is the gardener’s reward for patiently awaiting winter’s end. You take the steps to create a landscape design, scour plant material at greenhouses, and create gardens with meticulous care. After all of your efforts are complete, you awaken to discover that ...your precious flower bed became a snack!

Spring is not only your favorite time of year… it’s also a deer’s favorite time as well! After eating nothing but twigs and dead grasses all winter, there’s nothing they love more than getting a mouthful of your tender and tasty flowers! The answer? Deer resistant plant material and deer spray.

Why are they “deer resistant”?
Certain annuals naturally repel critters because their textures are unpleasant in a deer’s mouth. Other plants have a bad smell or taste - and can even be poisonous.
 
I’m at the store and found a plant I love… will deer eat it?
It’s always a good idea to visit a greenhouse with a plan.  When you encounter a new cultivar you really love, get some information from the plant marker.  Besides light requirements and spacing suggestions, the label may indicate if the plant is deer-resistant.  If it doesn’t say, here are some ways to see if a plant will be ignored by hungry deer:  

• Fuzzy, spiny, or rough texture
• Strong odor
• Leathery or tough leaves

Nursery employees can direct you to a section of deer resistant plant material.  A quick google search before purchasing the plant is helpful to determine how palatable this plant is for deer, as well as determining the invasive potential.  We have made the search easy for you by listing many deer resistant annuals at the end of this blog.

The deer and I have similar ‘taste’ in annuals…. How can I mitigate damage to my favorite flowers?
Our favorite flowers for beauty or fragrance are often deer favorites like stock, impatiens, geranium, pansies, and gerbera daisy. Try these tricks to repel deer:

• Place a bar of soap on a stick in your garden beds. Deer hate the smell.
•  Keep deer palatable flowers to a minimum and use a majority of deer resistant plants.
• Surround deer palatable annuals with those unaffected by deer.
• Use premade or homemade deer repellent sprays.

Planting your favorite flowers isn't prohibitive.  Deer sprays drive away deer and only need reapplication on new plant growth.  The most effective ones do NOT wash off in the rain. The spray repels deer by it's scent and makes leaves and flowers less appetizing.  Once the spray dries, the smell wears away but continues to mask the plant from sensitive noses of deer, rabbits and groundhogs.  Effective sprays available online or at local hardware stores and garden centers include: Deer Stopper, Bobbex and Liquid Fence. If you have large areas to spray, purchasing 2 gallon concentrate and using a hand pump sprayer may be more cost effective than buying a 'ready to use'  spray bottle of the repellent. If you’d like to make your own repellent try one of these recipes and apply on new growth or after a heavy rain:

Liquid Fence

Deer Stopper

Bobbex

Recipe #1
Beat whole eggs, then mix them with water at a ratio of 1 part eggs to 4 parts water and pour this mixture into a sprayer. To keep the egg mixture from clogging the sprayer nozzle, remove the white membrane attached to the egg yolks before beating eggs. Once on the plants, this egg mixture is weather-resistant, but you have to reapply it every 30 days.

Recipe #2
3 Tablespoons hot sauce
3 raw eggs
3 Tablespoons of minced garlic

Blend all ingredients together in a blender and add a little bit of water to lessen the thickness. Then, add the mixture to 1 gallon of water and spray around your plants.

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Recipe #3:
4 Tablespoons of ground cayenne pepper
1 cup white vinegar
2 cups water
1 cup clear ammonia
3 heads of garlic, peeled
1 cup oil soap

Mix together the cayenne pepper and white vinegar; bring to a boil. Boil for one minute, then strain the mixture through a coffee filter. Blend together garlic and water, then strain the mixture through a second coffee filter. Combine both strained mixtures, ammonia, and oil soap, and add the liquid to 2 1/2 gallons of water. Spray around your plants.

Recipe #4
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 Tablespoon of dish soap
1 Tablespoon of cooking oil

Blend all ingredients together, then add to 1 gallon of water and spray around your plants.

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Recipe #5
1 cup sour cream
1/4 teaspoon liquid dish soap
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 teaspoon cooking oil
20 drops clove oil

Add all ingredients to 1 gallon of water and shake well. Spray around your plants.

Recipe #6
1 egg yolk
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 liter of water

Blend all ingredients together and spray around your plants.

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Fun fact…. Hosta and Hydrangea are two of deer's best-loved foods. These perennials will draw deer in and keep them coming back. If you have deer, either replace these plants with resistant annuals, perennials and shrubbery, or spray repellent to protect them.

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Annuals to Avoid

Annuals to Plant
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Partial Shade and Full Shade

Coleus

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Partial Shade

Dusty MIller

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Partial Shade to Full Sun

Nicotiana

Waxed Begonia

Ageratum

Sweet Allysum

Sweet Allysum

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Full Sun

Salvia

Snapdragon

Verbena

Cosmos

Zinnia

Calendula

Calendula

Cleome

The knowledgeable gardener can certainly take measures to prevent deer browsing and enjoy colorful and beautiful gardens by combining deer deterrent sprays and using select plants in the landscape.  Replacing plants and shrubs which deer prefer with those they will ignore will take time, money and effort.  But the result will be a sustainable garden minus the frustration with local wildlife.
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Our Guest Contributor:  Paige Alcorn
​Penn State Ag School graduate majoring in turf grass and horticulture.​

References:
​Clausen, Ruth Rogers, and Alan Detrick. 50 Beautiful Deer-Resistant Plants: the Prettiest Annuals, Perennials, Bulbs, and Shrubs That Deer Don't Eat. Timber Press, 2011.
“Deer Resistant Plants.” Cornell Cooperative Extension, 2019, warren.cce.cornell.edu/home-page/gardening-landscape/deer-resistant-plants.
Moore-Gough, Cheryl, and Robert E. Gough. “Growing Annual Flowers.” MontGuide, 2010, missoulaeduplace.org/images/horticulture/Publications/Flowers/Growing_Annual_Flowers.pdf.

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