Tuesday, June 15, 2021

Deer Resistant Plants - a conversation with landscape architect Edwina von Gal

 

Francesca Rheannon talks with landscape architect and activist Edwina von Gal at her magnificent gardens in East Hampton, New York. 

Edwina is a proponent of planting native shrubs and an opponent of the use of pesticides which kill vital bees and insects.

They talked about deer-resistant plants.  

 
Here is a list of deer-proof or deer-resistant plants compiled by Edwina von Gal:  
  • Carex pennsylvanica: Pennsylvania sedge (native)
  • Pachysandra procumbens: Allegheny Spurge (native)
  • Hakanechloa macra: Japanese grass  
  • Petacites japonica: butter burr
  • Lindera benzoin: Northern Spice Bush (native shrub, great for pollinators, blooms in Feb/March)   
  • Hamamalia virginia:  (not deer proof) spring witch hazel (late season bloom)
  • Leucothoe axillaris — Prefers a bit of shade; evergreen
  • sweet alyssum
  • Aconitum napellus (not native): Monkshood 
  • Actaea racemosa:  black cohosh (native)
  • Amsonia hubrichtii: Bluestar (native)
  • ground covers: bee balms, mountain mints, pachera, chrisogonum (Yellow Star), mahonia 
  • flowering trees: Carolina silver bell; Carolina all spice, calalanthus
  • hellebore (not native) good for pollinators
  • American dogwood, American fringe tree
  • magnolia virginiana: swamp magnolia (blooms all summer)