Deer Resistant Flower Bulbs

There are thousands of plant and flower bulbs on the market. These bulbs produce some of the most beautiful flowers and plants on earth. Now, the question is, ‘How many bulbs are resistant to deer?’ Unfortunately, the answer is not “thousands”. But out of the thousands of bulb-produced plants, there are many deer resistant bulbs. If you live in an area with a healthy deer population, consider using bulbs that have some record of not being the first choice for dinner as the deer passes through your property. Plants produced from bulbs that are smelly, sticky, toxic, feathery, fuzzy or highly aromatic, will usually not be the deer’s 1st choice. Plant toxicity is a major deterrent.

Daffodils are a good example or a deer resistant flower bulb. Daffodil leaves contain a toxin that deer do not like. Deer will surely eat every tulip in your garden but leave your daffodils alone. Perhaps it’s the odor of the allium plants that discourage deer browsing. Whichever the case, deer seem to ignore allium as well as ornamental onion plants grown from bulbs. Deer prefer tender new foliage on newly planted ornamentals and those fertilized to produce lush new growth. During dry weather, deer are attracted to irrigated plants. Irrigated plants exhibit less stress and they taste better. We recommend the following deer resistant bulbs for trying to cope with deer. These deer resistant flower bulbs have been known to be less attractive to deer than other bulbs.