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Talking Deer Resistant Plants with Ruth Rogers Clausen
Category: Presenting "The Curious Gardener"
Earlier this week Ruth Rogers Clausen met my mother and me at White Flower Farm in Litchfield County, CT. I wanted to catch up with Ruth on the topic of her new book, coming out in June (Timber Press). The title is 50 Beautiful Deer Resistant Plants, and I thought our visit to White Flower Farm provided a good opportunity to ask her what some of her favorite deer resistant plants are. Ruth and I both live in areas with lots of deer. Click here to hear Ruth talk about some of her favorite deer resistant plants in a video we made that day. 
Ruth says that there are plenty of very popular and beautiful plants that deer don’t really like. They usually don’t go for plants with a strong fragrance for instance. That includes lavender, alliums and russian sage.
- Ruth checking out Hakonechloa, a plant that deer don’t like
One way to keep deer away from a plant that they do like is to protect the plant by planting the things they don’t like all around it. In her book Ruth talks about combinations of plants that are culturally similar and can work as a tag team in that way. She also touches on design elements that can discourage deer from entering your garden. They will never jump into a small space where they will feel cornered, such as a small fenced in area.
After our lovely and educational tour of White Flower Farm the three of us went into town for a glass of wine and a nice lunch. It’s always a treat for my mother and me to spend an afternoon with Ruth.
We have a lot of deer in our yard – I kept wanting to plant something to spruce it up but the deer would eat everything!
Our neighbor keeps plants inside chicken wire fences, but I’d prefer having the plants in the open. Thank you for the useful post – I’ll be looking into Hakonechloa!
Danielle