I love Erica!

Winter-blooming Erica

Yes, I love Erica and was shocked when I found her dead in our garden this spring after our frigid winter—when nighttime temperatures in early January approached zero degrees Fahrenheit.

I love Erica x darleyensis ‘Mediterranean Pink’, sometimes called heather, for two reasons.  First, it’s the only plant that blooms through the winter in our gardens, usually from October into May.  I love finding Erica’s pink flowers poking through a crust of snow.  And second, our local bambits here in Deer Country don’t browse on Erica.

But the “dead of winter” 2013-2014 left our mature Erica dead indeed.  Just days after I had cut back its brittle, dry branches and dug up its roots in late March, I found and bought a new Erica at our local Lowe’s Home Improvement store.  Within hours I had planted the new Erica where we can admire it for many winters to come.  It’s still in bloom, and when the temperatures rise into the 50s, bumblebees already have come to sip nectar.

I love winter-flowering Erica.  The deer don’t.  Long live Erica.

Freeze-killed Erica, guarded by Teddy

Long live our new Erica!

St. Paddy’s Day Snow Visitors

Nosing for red-hot poker leaves

 St. Paddy’s Day 2014 snowstorm left us with about nine inches of snow—and some unusual visitors to our bird feeders.  With the extra snow and ice cover we’ve had this winter, I think I now know why I uncharacteristically bought 80 pounds of sunflower seeds last fall, rather than the usual 40.

Cleaning up sunflower-seed shells

Bird feeders, of course, are for birds—and we see lots of them. Typical birds scrounging for seeds under our feeders are white-throated sparrows, song sparrows, juncos, and cardinals.  Chickadees, titmice, white-breasted nuthatches, and downy and red-breasted woodpeckers feed at the suet and seed feeders.


St. Paddy’s Day snow, however, brought several new visitors.  One was a rufous-sided towhee that was ground feeding with several juncos and white-throated sparrows.  Then arrived three deer, which normally don’t come so close to our house during daylight hours.

Towhee deer-watching

But the deer apparently were desperate for food—any kind of food.  One doe pushed her nose through the snow and pulled out several dead red-hot poker leaves, which normally deer don’t browse because the leaves are so tough and stringy.  And then the three all but inhaled sunflower-seed shells discarded by birds, while the towhee watched from a kousa dogwood tree.

Nearby a garden gnome, with green jacket and, hopefully, insulated underwear, poked his head through the snow to deliver a “Happy St. Paddy’s Day” greeting.

"Happy St. Paddy's Day!"

American Tragedy: Slow Death in a Woods near You

Native dogwood along Triadelphia Mill Road
near the Big Branch boat landing,
Patuxent Reservoir Watershed 

Millions have died over the last 35 years, and each spring fewer survive to bloom along our forest edges and along our country roads and highways. They are our native dogwood tree, Cornus florida. The culprit: a fungus, Discula destructiva, also known as dogwood anthracnose, which has been killing and spreading since the 1970’s.

In his Urban Jungle column, “Devastated dogwoods,” in the Washington Post, Patterson Clark says the fungus has killed about 75 percent of native dogwoods in Central Maryland and 80 percent in Northern Virginia.

After I read that column, I took a drive along nearby country roads and walked along a watershed to look for and photograph native dogwoods in the wild. I saw plenty of the trees in front yards—and many of them looked less than healthy—but I found fewer in the wild than I had anticipated. Apparently the anthracnose is killing them slowly but surely. Tragically, potentially resistant seedlings have little chance for survival in the wild where too-large deer herds browse native flora to the ground.

The Cornell University fact sheet on this problem suggests several solutions. One that I have indulged in reluctantly is to plant the Asian dogwood, Cornus kousa, which is resistant to the disease. Few native critters, however, call the kousa home or feed on it, though deer and squirrels here at Meadow Glenn relish its small, reddish fruit.

The final sentence in the Cornell fact sheet holds out some hope that our native dogwood: “A resistant Flowering Dogwood cultivar named 'Appalachian Spring' has also been developed from a living tree in an otherwise devastated Maryland forest and may soon be available.”

Yes, we soon may be able to plant an anthracnose-resistant native dogwood in our yards, but who will replace the tens of millions of dogwoods that have died in our forests and along our country roads? The sad fact is that in a few years our wild, native dogwoods likely will be “history.”

I suggest you grab your camera and take a drive along a country road or take a walk along a woodland stream to enjoy that spring icon we all love so much, our native flowering dogwood—before there are no wild ones left to enjoy.

To read Patterson Clark’s “Devastated dogwoods” in his Urban Jungle feature in the Washington Post, CLICK HERE.

To read the Cornell University fact sheet about dogwood anthracnose, CLICK HERE.

Too Late to Prune Lavender?

Lavender crowds sidewalk before pruning

My four lavender plants have grown nearly a foot over the sidewalk, an indication that I have been negligent in pruning them. I’ve gone online to check on the best pruning time, and, alas, the consensus is August.

But this is April. Should I prune them? Hmm, I’ve pruned them in the spring at other times, and they didn’t seem to suffer. Yes, I’ll do it again.

Our plants are of the so-called English line of lavenders (Lavendula angustifolia), thanks to the ancient Roman invaders and colonists who brought it with them from sunnier climes to the British Isles. The specific variety is ‘Munstead,’ named after Munstead Wood, the home of the late Gertrude Jekyll, a famed British garden designer and writer.

Lavender after pruning

When ‘Munstead’ blooms, first come small pollinators—insects of all sorts, most of which I have not identified—but then come butterflies. And after the flowers fade, American goldfinches perch on the flower stalks and dine on seeds. Another great feature: deer have never browsed a leaf. I imagine the oils and fragrances of the lavender are offensive to deer noses and tongues.

But time it is to prune the lavender. “Put on your gardening gloves to protect your hands,” advises ehow.com, a good online source. “Get down close … so you can see small, green shoots on the lower stems.” Yes, I’ll leave new growth.

After pruning, new shoots predominate

So I clip away with my pruners, cutting out all branches that are crowding the sidewalk on one side of the bed and the lawn on the other side.

“Cut back old, straggly lavender plants in the spring to 6 inches. This may encourage it to form shoots close to the ground and it may save the plant,” says the ehow “Tips & Warnings.”

Save the plant? I just want to shape it, but when I think of my history of pruning plants, perhaps “save the plant” is a good thought.

I clip and shape, but decide not to cut it back to six inches—well, not all of it. Soon all of last year’s growth is gone, and this year’s bright-green shoots predominate. I top off the old mulch with some fresh pine-bark mulch, and the lavender pruning is done.

Buckeye butterfly on 'Munstead' lavender

The four ‘Munstead’ lavender plants have given us so much pleasure, added so much beauty, since I planted them in 2005. With just a little care, an annual pruning, they may continue to please for another 15 years, according to the website.

I smile a happy, Frugal Gardener smile. Twenty years of pleasure—and to think I bought the plants at a half-price, November close-out sale.

Deer Country Extra: Why Bambits Don’t Jump the Fence

Time to cut back sweet autumn clematis

Yes, I’ll admit I have a love/hate relationship with our local bambits, the affectionate term I give our large, local deer herd. I don’t like it one bit when they browse on my trees, shrubs, and flowers. But they are beautiful, and I have a soft spot for them when snow cover prevents them ready access to food.


That’s why I don’t cut back the sweet autumn clematis that covers about 50 feet of our backyard fence after its fall flowers go to seed and frosts turn its dark-green leaves brown. Even though the bambits don’t browse on the clematis while it’s growing, I noticed several years ago that when there’s snow cover, they come to our fence and eat some of the dried leaves.


They browsed on the dried leaves again in January when we had the 9-inch snow that covered the ground for several weeks. For some reason the deer preferred the brown leaves on one section of the fence, perhaps because it was easier for them to access, though they had to trample a line of fountain grass plants outside the fence to get to the clematis. Every day I noticed more hoof prints leading to the clematis. After a few days, I could see light through the thick vines because the deer had eaten so many leaves.

March 1: New leaves already growing

The sunny, cool weather on Tuesday beckoned me to cut back the clematis. I had checked a few days earlier and noticed that some of the stems were bright green and preparing to put out new leaves. I celebrated the arrival of March by getting out my best pair of pruners and cutting the vines from the outside of about 50 feet of the fence.

Job's 'more than half' done

You might think I’m half done, but I’m probably three-quarters done because years ago I planted the clematis on the outside of the fence in front of the split-rail posts, and that's where my heavy cutting takes place. The vines on the inside of the fence just have to be pulled off the wire and tossed over the fence.


Why didn’t I do the whole job?

Wall of sweet autumn clematis blooming in September

I really wanted to finish, but my two regular helpers had other ideas. After what seemed about an hour, my left hand said it was going to stop grabbing the vines and pulling them away from the fence so my right hand could cut them easily and cleanly. A half hour later my right hand announced it was going to get a blister on its thumb if I worked much longer, even though I wore leather gloves.


So when I finished the “bigger half” of the job, I called it an afternoon. I didn’t even work up a sweat in the sun and 45°F. temperature. I surveyed what I had accomplished and declared it good for the 60 minutes invested. When I glanced at the wall clock when I went inside, I saw that I had worked nearly two hours. No wonder my old hands were threatening to go on strike or call 9-1-1.


The clematis serves several purposes when it makes a green wall out of the fence each summer. It screens our swimming pool, though I really don’t care if the bambits watch me swim. A second reason has to do with the deer—but not to provide them dried leaves in winter. When the clematis covers the fence, the deer cannot see inside without periscopes or step ladders, so they are not tempted by flowers or veggies growing inside the fence. Deer also tend not to jump into places they’re unfamiliar with and which don’t look like safe spots to land—so the clematis again discourages them.


The long row of fountain grass outside the fence helps make the fence a challenge for deer too. Deer like to make short, up-and-over jumps, not long, broad jumps. Normally, they could walk up to our backyard fence, which has 4-foot wire fencing attached to the outside of the split rails, and just hop over without significant effort. But the clematis obscures what’s on the other side of the fence and the fountain grass makes the jump a long one, so in nearly 15 years the deer haven’t jumped the fence.


Of course, there are other uncertainties in the backyard too—the swimming pool with a filter running all summer, white gravel as part of the pool landscaping, raised veggie and flower beds, and the hillside location itself. All may be factors keeping our bambits out, but the clematis and fountain grass, I believe, are important factors.


Another day soon I’ve got to finish the job by tossing the remaining vines on the inside of the fence over the fence so I can cart them to a compost pile at the edge of our woods. And then I’ve got to use my electric trimmers to cut back the fountain grass.  The plantings along the backyard fence then will be ready for Summer 2011.


Something new: If you want to read earlier "Deer Country" postings, an easy way to find them is to go the end of the text of any "Deer Country" posting.  Just below the posting you'll see "Labels," one of which is "DeerCountry."  Click on "Deer Country," and you'll see all the series in a chronological list.

Deer Country 12: Summer Perennial Flowers

Spring perennial flowers that deer don’t eat were our focus in “Deer Country 11.” This “Deer Country” and the next will feature perennial flowers that bloom in summer and were listed by Howard County Master Gardeners in a survey as plants their local deer don’t eat.


Plant breeders must be having fun with blanket flower (Gaillardia spp.). Spring catalogs show a new cultivar or two each year with new color combinations. You can buy blanket flower seed packets, but generally you will not get blooms until the second year. It’s a favorite of butterflies but not deer.

If you like blue flowers, salvia (Salvia spp.) will make you happy and leave the deer looking for snacks elsewhere. Over the last 10 years I’ve planted ‘May Night,’ ‘Purple Rain,’ and ‘Rhapsody in Blue Sage.’ Since I have planted them on the east side of our house where they don’t get the full sun they prefer, they don’t grow as tall (up to 2’) as they should, but they still bloom profusely in early summer. My current salvia, ‘Rhapsody,’ has a tendency to collapse in July thunder- and windstorms, which disappointed me at first, but it soon puts up new stems from the center of the plant for a second, late-summer round of blooms.

If you want to grow orchids in your garden without having a greenhouse, plant hardy orchid (Bletilla striata). I hadn’t the slightest idea that such plants existed until I saw them growing in the garden of a Master Gardener, Irene M.  I ordered up tubers (underground stems with buds) of two colors—white and pink—from a mail-order catalog. I planted them in a small garden on the east side of our home, where they get only a couple of hours of direct morning sun. They grew slowly for the first couple of years but soon began growing vigorously.

You may like to eat onions, but deer don’t. Feel confident then to plant members of the onion genus, Allium, which is Latin for “garlic.” But if you don’t want to plant onions, shallots, leeks, scallions, garlic, or chives in your flower garden, plant ornamental alliums instead. Bulb catalogs often list a score or more varieties with blooms ranging from “sparkler” and “hairy” types to those with various sizes of ball-like blue and purple blooms. In the photo are my ‘Drumstick’ alliums.

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) is another butterfly favorite. Years ago I planted ‘Cerise Queen,” which had deep-red blooms. However, over the years the color of the blooms gradually has reverted to a more natural white. Bright yellow is now a popular color. Yarrow multiplies both by seed and rhizomes (underground stems), so I restrict mine to an area between a sidewalk and concrete patio-stone pavers. Yarrow has been used for centuries for many purposes around the world, so it has many common names, such as gordaldo, nosebleed plant, old man’s pepper, devil’s nettle, sanguinary, milfoil, soldier’s woundwort, and thousand-leaf (which is the meaning of its binomial name, millefolium.

I grow veggies because I love to eat them. I grow garden pinks (Dianthus spp.) because I love to be engulfed in their fragrance when I walk nearby and deer don’t eat them. Current varieties include ‘Cheddar Pink’ and ‘Spangled Star.’

Deer love to browse daylilies except one: Stella d’Oro (Hemerocallis ‘Stella d’Oro’). Though its golden-yellow flowers may be less dramatic than newer daylily hybrids, what gardener in Deer Country will complain when deer pass it by to chow down on other daylilies and the taller Asiatic and Oriental lilies? Daylilies, of course, get their name from the fact that each bloom lasts only one day, unlike the Asiatic and Oriental lily blooms that often last for a week or more. Mine grow about a foot tall. They grow best in sunny locations but will tolerate some shade. If you cut out the stems after all the blooms are spent, you will encourage Stellas to rebloom, often into the fall. Every few years I look at my Stellas and say, “Hey, they need to be divided.” I get out my spade and cut off large parts of each plant, often dividing those parts again, and then giving the divisions as starter plants to friends looking for deer-resistant plants.


Note: Remember there are no guarantees that deer in your neighborhood won’t eat perennials listed here. There is no “deer-proof” plant. Browsing depends on many things, including number of deer, availability of other foods, and preferences of individual deer. If you’re serious about finding perennials that deer won’t eat, remember to check the lists in the brochure and the books I recommended in “Deer Country 3” and in lists available online. Research your favorite candidates and give them a try.


Next week’s “Deer Country” posting: more summer perennial flowers.

Herbs: Tasty, Tasteful, or Both?

Think “herbs” and you likely think of something tasty to season your food. In her “A Cook’s Garden” column in the Washington Post, Barbara Damrosch focuses on another dimension: beauty.


Yes, you’ve caught the drift. Grow herbs for both taste and beauty.


Enjoy the accompanying photo of Pink Candypops mint.


Damrosch just might be onto something here. And to think deer don’t generally browse strongly flavored or scented herbs, such as mint.


To read her column, CLICK HERE.

Crew Cut for Fountain Grass

Fountain grass needinglate-winter trim

February days don’t get much better than last Friday—overcast, then sunny, temperatures rising into the low 70’s. “Make hay while the sun shines,” goes the old saying, and I got out my electric hedge trimmer and pitch fork and started serious front-yard garden cleanup.


First I gave crew cuts to the three clumps of fountain grass (Pennisetum) that share a small island bed with a boxwood. The island surrounds the access port of our septic system, and the plants hide the white, PVC plastic pipe from view most of the year. The evergreen boxwood grows between the port and our house, hiding the port year-round on that side.


Why didn’t I cut back the fountain grass in late November or December? Well, I could have, once the ornamental grass died back. But I leave it over winter to add some character to our landscape. And we especially enjoy feathered characters—chipping sparrows—that in early winter hop onto blades of the dried fountain grass and peck away at the seed heads as the grass slowly sinks toward the ground.

Crew cut finished

Even with electric trimmer, cutting fountain grass is slow going because it is so tough. Remember the point I made in “Deer Country 2,” that deer don’t have top incisors so find it difficult to browse on tough or woody foods. I suspect they don’t browse on ornamental grasses because the grass is too difficult to bite off.


After I finished giving crew cuts to the fountain grass, I put the trimmer to work cutting back nearby liatris, Siberian iris, butterfly weed, lychnis, and coreopsis plants that I had also allowed to stand over winter in nearby flower beds. The iris had tough-to-cut leaves too, but the trimmer made quick work of the others.


I had planned to trim the 20 or so clumps that stretch along the outside of our backyard fence. But cleaning up the island garden and then cutting back the perennials in the nearby beds, plus cutting back raspberry canes in the back yard, took two hours, after which this Ancient Gardener was aching here, there, and just about everywhere.


Ok, let’s keep some of the clean up for another warm, late-winter day.


And remember, Bob, to wear your back brace next time you do yard work.


In “Deer Country 11” and subsequent postings, you’ll meet the perennials I’ve mentioned in this posting.


And a future posting will tell you about my Heritage raspberries.

'Weren't we doing spring yard work last week?'

Deer Country 11: Spring Perennial Flowers

When I surveyed Howard County Master Gardeners about perennial flowers that deer don’t eat, they recommended 27 plants—too many for one posting here on Ancient Gardener Blog. I’m going to divide the list into four parts for weekly postings, dividing the plants roughly according to when they bloom. Sometimes that makes the division easy because a plant blooms only for a short time, and sometimes I’ll just have to arbitrarily place a plant on the list knowing that it blooms for many weeks or several times a summer. This week’s posting covers six plants that bloom in the spring.


Drum roll—the all-time winner of the “Deer Resistant Flower Trophy” is the daffodil (Narcissus spp.). It appears on every list of deer-resistant plants. When I tallied their votes, Howard County Master Gardeners put it at the top of their list. When we first moved to Meadow Glenn, I began my “deer-resistant plant” education by noticing that hoof prints of deer went around the daffodils I had planted and ended where the deer had devoured nearby tulips. Bulb catalogs offer scores and hundreds of varieties of daffodils in a wide range of colors and heights. Choosing varieties that bloom at different times can extend overall bloom time for several weeks. They grow best in full sun but can take a little shade.

Bleeding heart (Dicentra spp.) is an early-spring beauty. My six-year specimen spreads more than two feet in each direction, even though I’ve moved it twice to give it more room and shade. Yes, it’s a true shade plant that thrives in the shadow of the east side of your house. A plus: after a few years, it will drop seeds, and you can share young plants with your gardening friends. A minus: After it blooms, it dies back rapidly and usually is “history” by mid-June.

Lily-of-the-valley (Convallaria majalis). This plant makes a great ground cover for shady locations, which is how I use it on the eastern side of our house. Is there any springtime fragrance sweeter than that of lily-of-the-valley? When I was a wee lad in New Jersey, I picked two or three lily-of-the-valley flowers and a leaf or two, tied them together with white string, and presented this rustic, somewhat wilted corsage to my mom. She pinned it on her best dress and wore my gift to church. I hope your mom was like that too.

Peony (Paeonia spp.) loves the sun and rewards us every spring with its huge, fragrant blooms that last about a week. Every year in May my dad picked a bunch of peonies, and then we took our annual drive to a nearby cemetery where Dad arranged the red and white flowers in a quart jar of water by a gravestone. The names on the stone: Warren and Angela Nixon, Dad’s parents. Dad often stood by the tombstone, just looking. Later in life, I learned his parents died in the Spanish Flu epidemic two days apart in October 1918. Both were 29 years old, and they left six children. My dad was only three. When he stood there quietly in the cemetery, I now wonder, was he trying to recall a faint childhood memory of his folks? Sometimes I wonder if the love he showered on my brother and me compensated for the love the H1N1 virus robbed him of during his childhood.

Moss phlox (Phlox subulata). This makes a great ground cover for sunny spots in Deer Country. It hugs the ground and gradually expands into a thick green mat covered with pink or white flowers in the spring. Yes, deer don’t eat it, but they do rip off a stem or two from time to time, especially in winter when food is scarce—and promptly spit it out.

Vivid purple blooms of Siberian iris (Iris sibirica) are a springtime garden brightener. I see new colors creeping into current catalogs. I suspect deer don’t eat this iris because the leaves are so tough. When I cut them back with an electric clipper in the spring, they are difficult to cut. Without top incisors, deer don’t like tough-to-browse food. It’s too much work for the nutrition gained, I suppose.


Remember that there are no guarantees that deer in your neighborhood won’t eat perennials listed here. There is no “deer-proof” plant. Browsing depends on many things, including number of deer, availability of other foods, and preferences of individual deer. For example, lily-of-the-valley appears on this week’s list, and even though it was recommended by Master Gardeners as highly resistant, I’ve had two gardeners tell me recently that deer in their neighborhoods eat it.


If you’re serious about finding perennials that deer won’t eat, remember to check the lists in the brochure and the books I recommended in “Deer Country 3” and in lists available online. Research your favorite candidates and give them a try.

Deer Country 10: Annual Flowers

Browsed marigold

Nearly every gardener in Deer Country has a list—a short list—of annual flowers that local deer don’t eat. Over the years my short list included—note the past tense—marigolds, petunias, and vincas.


In “Deer Country 1,” I mentioned how the sunflowers and pansies I planted when we first moved to Meadow Glenn disappeared and how I then realized that deer were going to use our flower gardens as a salad bar.


My defense was to start planting annuals that I thought deer would pass by. Friends advised, “Try marigolds. They have a strong scent that the deer will avoid.” Others suggested, “Try petunias. They have furry leaves the deer don’t like.”


I planted marigolds, and, amazingly, the first year had beautiful blooms. But the second year, deer regularly browsed the marigolds—and we had no blooms to admire.

Browsed petunia

I planted petunias and they grew for several months and started to bloom. “Ah, ha,” I thought. “The deer really don’t like the furry leaves. I’ve outwitted them.” Then one morning I was greeted with petunia plants consisting of just stems. The deer had eaten all the blooms and leaves. The plants struggled to releaf, but they never bloomed again.


I had better luck with vincas, a tropical import. I planted a line of them in the narrow bed between our front sidewalk and our front porch. In fact, I planted them successfully for about five years, and we enjoyed their pink and white blooms in mid-summer until cold weather set in. And then in year six the deer decided to browse the vincas. They ate the leaves and as they browsed pulled up many of the plants, which don’t have much of a root system.

Browsed & uprooted vinca

I don’t plant annuals in our deer-accessible landscape. I do usually grow a row of zinnias and marigolds in our fenced backyard, but I’ve surrendered to the deer elsewhere. I now spend my effort and time on perennial flowers with which I’ve had much better luck, which means I planted them, they grow and bloom, and the deer generally ignore them. In the next several Deer Country postings, I’ll be talking about those perennials.


Are there annual flowers that I could grow without deer browsing here at Meadow Glenn? Probably. Are there annual flowers you can grow without deer browsing in your landscape? Probably. The only way to find out is to experiment. Grow some good candidates and see what your deer think of your additions.


There are lists of good candidates in the publications I mentioned in “Deer Country 3.” The Soderstrom book lists a page and a half of “Annuals and Biennials.” Hart lists seven candidates, including zinnias, which our deer browse. Adler has several pages of “Plants Rarely Damaged,” including some annuals, and Drzewucki lists a dozen annuals. Both Adler and Drzewucki include marigolds and petunias, which Meadow Glenn deer browse heavily. University of Maryland Extension Fact Sheet 655 includes several annuals in its “Rarely Damaged” section on “Annuals, Perennials, and Bulbs.”


If you’re serious about growing annual flowers in Deer Country, I recommend that you invest in a deer-resistant fence, experiment to find varieties your deer don’t eat, or use a deer spray.


To go to “Deer Country 3,” which lists the books and brochure mentioned in this posting, CLICK HERE.

To go to “Deer Country 4,” which discusses repellents, CLICK HERE.


Please post a Comment to identify annual flowers that deer in your part of Deer Country don’t eat.

Deer Country Extra: Browsing on Flowering Plum

The heavy snow last week split two substantial limbs on one of the flowering plum trees not far from our front door, leaving branches dangling to the ground. This afternoon a doe and a yearling decided to browse on the now-reachable limbs.

I watched the brunching deer for nearly a quarter hour as they tugged at the branches, often shaking them in their attempts to eat.


After the two moved on to easier eating, I went out to check on what they had been eating. It appeared they were nibbling at still-tight buds and the smallest, softest, though woody, limb tips from last summer’s growth.

Because the deer don’t have upper incisors, they don’t easily sever woody foods. The biggest twig they had severed was about a quarter-inch in diameter. Most were smaller.

Deer Country 9: Two Resistant Trees

'Sea Green' juniper

When I asked Howard County Master Gardeners what kinds of trees deer don’t eat in their landscapes, they listed two: junipers and spruces.


Those two broad categories, however, cover many varieties, some of which you might consider to be shrubs because of their small size. But you’re not alone. In his authoritative Manual of Woody Landscape Plants, Michael Dirr points out that the term “junipers” covers a wide range of trees and shrubs and that “spruce” covers several short varieties that you might call shrubs or bushes.


Why do deer shun them? Their leaves tend to be prickly or needle like and often are strongly aromatic.


I have two kinds of junipers, Juniperus chinensis ‘Sea Green’ and Juniperus squamata ‘Blue Star.’


Several years ago I planted a row of Sea Green junipers along the north side of our driveway to serve as a snow fence. They’ve grown to six-feet or more and are serving their purpose well. Deer on rare occasions nip an inch or two of new growth, but Sea Green obviously is not on their “must eat” list.

'Blue Star' juniper

I’ve planted several short Blue Star junipers in our flower gardens, where they serve as accent plants that add both color and texture, especially during winter months. After four years, the Blue Stars are still less than one-foot tall by one-foot wide. I don’t think the deer have taken even one nip of Blue Star’s prickly, aromatic leaves.


You might be wondering about one of the best-known native junipers, the Eastern red cedar, Juniperus virginiana. Seedlings frequently sprout under other trees here at Meadow Glenn from seeds dropped by birds. Twice I’ve moved seedlings to better growing locations, only to be met with disaster. My most successful transplant grew beautifully to about seven-feet tall and then over one year died of a rust disease. A second, smaller transplant became lunch one winter day when a neighbor’s Angus cattle got out and needed a strongly flavored snack. Even though red cedar has prickly, aromatic leaves, deer will browse on them when food is scarce. During Snowmageddon 2010, I watched deer rearing up to browse on the lower limbs of a neighbor’s red cedars.

Ellen's blue spruce

I also have two varieties of blue spruce, Picea pungens, both of which the deer don’t eat.


When we moved to Meadow Glenn, one of the first things Ellen asked that I plant was a blue spruce. That four-footer that I planted now towers near our driveway adding color year round.


I also planted two Montgomery spruces—also blue—in a small bed between our front sidewalk and the garage. Dirr calls this variety a “dwarf bush.” I’m counting on these “dwarfs” to stay small and to continue adding color and texture to the landscaping along the front of our house for many years.

'Montgomery' spruce

The two trees I’ve written about here are those that Howard County Master Gardeners say their local deer don’t eat. The books and brochure I mentioned in “Deer Country 3” list many others you may wish to consider. And remember that just because you find a tree listed as “deer resistant” doesn’t mean the deer in your neighborhood have read the list and agree not to eat it. “Deer Country 7” describes how you can cage young trees to help them survive browsing deer.


Next week’s “Deer Country” will begin a discussion of deer-resistant flowers.


If this is the first “Deer Country” posting that you’ve read, I suggest that you click on the “Deer” label at the end of this posting and read earlier “Deer Country” postings.

Deer Country Extra: Maple Loss, Deer Gain

Browsing on maple buds

The news about our Ancient Maple, already in natural decline, is not good. Last week’s nine-inch, heavy snow broke several of the tree’s significant, younger limbs.


Bad news about Ancient Maple, however, means good news for deer confronted by a largely snow-covered food supply. Groups of two to six come regularly to browse on the buds of the fallen limbs.

Stream bed: Snow-free walkway

For deer to find food in a snow-covered landscape must be challenging. On Friday I watched two does in our woods using their front hooves to try to find dried leaves through the snow.

Travel in the deep snow is less challenging. I watched six deer repeat what I had noticed deer doing during last year’s Snowmageddon—using the bed of our spring-fed stream as a snow-free walkway.


Tough life.


Smart deer.

Deer Country 8: Four Resistant Shrubs

Let’s not get into an argument here about the differences between a shrub and a tree. Let’s just define shrub as a multi-stemmed woody landscape plant under 20-feet tall. Of course, deer find short shrubs perfectly convenient for eating or rubbing, as I described in “Deer Country 6.”


When I surveyed Howard County Master Gardeners about “deer- resistant” shrubs, they listed four: boxwood, heather, lilac, and butterfly bush.

Boxwood (Buxus sempervirens) is a slow-growing evergreen that has been part of landscape plantings for generations, often as foundation plants or hedges that grow to about six feet. The one I’ve planted in an island bed to hide the vent of our septic system grows only a couple of inches a year, but I celebrate every time I look out my study window because our bambits continue to pass it by. I’ve seen deer sniff it, but they’ve never taken a bite.

Heather (Erica spp.), sometimes called heath, is another slow-growing evergreen that blooms over winter, from about Thanksgiving through May here in Maryland. I suspect deer don’t relish its fine, needle-like leaves. My eight-year-old specimen is an attractive mound about five feet across and 18-inches high. It grows well with limited water and, like its relatives blueberry, azalea, and rhododendron, thrives in acid soil.

Lilac (Syringa spp.) is a traditional backyard shrub favorite that deer don’t nibble or rub. If you still have dim memories of American Literature, you probably recall the most famous lilac poem of all, Walt Whitman’s “When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom’d,” the poet’s “Memories of President Lincoln.”

Butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii) grows to about five feet tall and, yes, attracts butterflies by the scores if not hundreds. We have three ‘Pink Delight’ butterfly bushes that seem almost to flutter at times because of all the butterflies sipping nectar. This shrub blooms on new growth so should be cut back to one foot or so in winter. Yes, deer don’t eat it, but occasionally a buck cannot resist rubbing it to remove dead velvet from his antlers in the fall. Note that some states consider some varieties invasive.


Since this is a blog and not a book, I’ve made no attempt to identify the scores or hundreds of varieties or cultivars of the four shrubs nor to detail their growing habits and requirements. If you want to do in-depth research, I recommend any of Michael A. Dirr’s excellent books on trees and shrubs, which are available at some libraries and, of course, at book sellers. If you don’t want a Master’s degree in the shrub of your choice, you can research shrub sellers online or visit a plant nursery this spring and discuss you needs with experts there.


The books and brochure I mentioned in “Deer Country 3” list many other shrubs you may want to consider. The Soderstrom book, for example, has four pages with more than 100 recommendations.


I must give you the most famous gardening warning of all: Just because a shrub is listed as “deer resistant” doesn’t mean the deer in your neighborhood have read the list and agreed not to eat it.


If this is the first “Deer Country” posting that you’ve read, I invite you to click on the blue “Deer” label at the end of this posting and read earlier “Deer Country” segments.


Next week in “Deer Country” I’ll write about deer-resistant trees.

To see my heather blooming in January snow, CLICK HERE.

Deer Country 7: Protecting Shrubs & Trees with Fencing

Caged tree

How do I protect shrubs and trees that aren’t “deer resistant” from browsing and rubbing? I do it with fencing. I make cages out of posts and wire fencing and have created what I call the Clarksville Shrub & Tree Zoo, where plants are caged and deer run free.

There is one difference of note between shrubs and trees that I cage. The shrubs—by definition woody landscape plants relatively short in height—generally don’t outgrow their need for protection from either browsing or rubbing. Most trees, by contrast, eventually grow tall enough that deer cannot reach their lower leaves and have trunks that are too large for bucks to rub efficiently.  That's why my tree cages generally are smaller in anticipation that trees will outgrow their need for the cages, and my shrub cages are generally larger in anticipation that shrubs will not grow large enough to eliminate the need for protection.

Caged shrubs

After 15 years of trial and error of dealing with bambits here at Meadow Glenn, here’s how I fence my trees and shrubs.


I use light-weight, 5-foot iron posts that I buy at hardware stores, mainly because the 5-footers are reasonably tall and relatively inexpensive. Taller, heavy-duty posts cost significantly more but, of course, are more resistant to bending by the deer.

Yes, deer at Meadow Glenn bend light-weight iron posts at ground level when I use plastic fencing or “chicken wire.” The deer learn that if they lean in on the soft fencing, it gives. They lean in still more to reach more edibles, and at some point leverage bends the iron posts at right angles at ground level. Wooden, aluminum, or plastic stakes often are nearly as expensive as the more resistant iron posts and generally aren't designed for attaching wire.

Deer-wrecked iron post/chicken wire cage

Because deer don’t respect soft fencing, I now use 48”-high welded-wire fencing with 2”x3” squares. Yes, deer still try to reach over or through it, eat any leaf that grows outside, and each year bend a few posts, but in two years no deer has breached the iron-post/welded wire combination. I buy the fencing in 50’ rolls at hardware stores, but 100’ rolls are available. Some stores carry plastic-covered wiring, and others carry rolls without the green plastic. The plain rolls are generally about $15 cheaper, and from a distance, I don’t notice much of a difference. Frugal Gardener.


After lots of trial and error and wrecking early-model cages with my lawn mower, I generally make larger, rectangular cages for shrubs and circular cages for trees, with the fencing beginning about a foot above ground, which gives my Kubota's mowing deck room to cut fairly close without tangling with and wrecking the cage. With five-foot posts and four-foot fencing, protection extends about five feet above ground level.

The "browse line"

Is five feet significant? Generally, yes. Deer browse as they walk through your landscape, usually from ground level up to where they can reach without too much stretching. That upper limit is about five or six feet above ground level and is called—surprise, surprise—the “browse line.” Your goal with young trees is to protect them until their lower limbs are above the browse line so you can remove the fencing. Yes, deer occasionally and awkwardly rear up on their rear feet to reach leaves, but that’s generally when lower food sources are covered by snow and deciduous trees don’t have leaves to tempt deer.

Experience also has taught me that two iron posts per caged tree work better than one iron post and a less expensive plastic or wood post.  The iron posts are designed to have wire attached, and the more stable cage weathers summer and winter storms better and endures deer exploration better.  I've also learned that I should space the iron posts three to four feet apart when I make a rectangular cage for shrubs.  Longer distances between posts yield a more "giving" cage that deer will be tempted to breach.


But don’t forget the second problem—rubbing. Your shrub cages are permanent, so no problem there. But if in time you remove cages from growing trees, remember to protect their trunks until they’re of sufficient size to discourage rubbing. I see rubbing on 3”- to 6”-diameter cedar and tuIip poplar trunks in our woods, though the bigger the diameter, the less chance the tree will be terminally damaged by rubbing. I make trunk protectors from hardware cloth, but plastic protectors of various designs are available commercially.


In Deer Country 8, I’ll focus on deer-resistant shrubs, and in Deer Country 9, I’ll do the same for trees. 

If this is the first Deer Country posting you've read and you want to learn more, I suggest you click on the "Deer" label below.  You'll get a list of posting that have mentioned deer.  I suggest you start with "Deer Country 1" and read your way through the "Deer Country" series.