The Deer Resilient Garden in the Community Education Garden tests plants to identify those less affected by winter deer browsing. Deer are in this area in the winter and spring, when tulips are a tasty treat. They are less frequent visitors in the summer, so the garden focuses on evergreens. The garden was started in May, 2013. This list of plants is current as of January 2026.
Trees marked with “UF” are utility friendly trees, those expected to be short enough at maturity to plant below an overhead utility line.
Learn more about deer in the garden:
- Deer Resistant Plants (pdf) – WSU Extension, Spokane County
- Living with Deer – Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife
- Landscape Plants Rated by Deer Resistance – Rutgers
Trees
- Cedrus atlantica ‘Glauca Pendula’ – weeping blue atlas cedar
- Hesperocyparis arizonica ‘Sulphurea’ – Arizona cypress UF: 10 ft x 4 ft
- Juniperus scopulorum ‘Skyrocket’ – juniper – UF: 15-20 ft
- Picea abies ‘Pendula’ – weeping Norway spruce
- Picea omorika ‘Nana’ – dwarf Siberian spruce
- Picea pungens ‘Bakeri’ – blue spruce- UF: 12 ft by 6 ft
- Picea pungens ‘Iseli Fasigiate’ – columnar blue spruce- UF: 15 ft x 4 ft
- Picea pungens ‘Montgomery’ – dwarf blue spruce
- Pinus leucodermis ‘Banderica’ – Bosnian pine
- Pinus parviflora ‘Goldilocks’ – white pine
Shrubs
- Berberis japonica – large leaf barberry
- Daphne x transatlantica ‘Summer Ice’ – daphne
- Erica cinerea ‘Atropurpurea’ – purple bell heather
- Erica x darleyensis ‘Mediterranean Pink Heath’ – winter heath
- Fothergilla gardenia – dwarf fothergilla
- Genista lydia – broom, woadwaxen
- Juniperus squamata ‘Blue Star’
- Juniperus procumbens ‘Green Mound’ – dwarf groundcover juniper
- Nandina domestica ‘Gulf Stream’ – dwarf nandina
- Potentilla fruticose ‘Goldfinger’ – shrubby cinquefoil
- Prunus laurocerasus ‘Otto Luyken’ – english laurel
- Spiraea japonica ‘Anthony Waterer’ – Japanese spirea
- Spiraea japonica ‘Little Princess’ – Japanese spirea
- Syringa pubescens subsp. patula ‘Miss Kim’ – Korean lilac
- Viburnum opulus ‘Nanum’ – dwarf European cranberry bush
- Weigela florida Sonic Bloom ‘Pink’ – weigela
- Weigela florida ‘Verweig’ MY MONET – weigela
- Weigela x ‘Raspberry Lemonade’ – weigela
Perennials
- Carex oshimensis ‘Evergold’ – sedge grass
- Euphorbia x martinii ‘Ascot Rainbow’ – ‘Ascot Rainbow’ spurge
- Hemerocallis ‘Stella de Oro’ – day lily
- Paeonia lactiflora ‘Sarah Bernhardt’ – peony
What we have learned
We check the CEG in the spring for evidence of deer impacts. These are the spring reports.
2025 – The ‘Otto Luyken’ laurel again browsed. A deer rubbed the fall-planted and still flexible Hesperocyparis arizonica ‘Sulphurea’, removing some of the bark and several branches.
2023- The shorter ‘Otto Luyken’ laurel had more browse, and in May has new shoots. Three tips on a small evergreen in the Welcome Garden were nipped, and did not set new growth.
2022- Due to heavy browse, three ilex in the Welcome Garden were removed. The smaller of the two ‘Otto Luyken’ laurels in the Deer Garden had heavy browse. In May it is slowly sending our new shoots.
2021- We had report of 11 deer in the garden during one visit. Browse on the top shoots of the ‘Otto Luyken’ laurels was a little heavier than previous years, and as of early May, the shrubs are recovering well. Deer again browsed the columnar holly shrubs in the adjacent Welcome Garden. In our newest “Woody” garden, they may have nipped the “Aronia Viking” black chokeberry, and the tulips were a treat.
2020- Winter snows were deep this winter. In early March, there is evidence of light deer browsing on the top shoots of the ‘Otto Luyken’ laurels, more on the smaller of the two shrubs. In the adjacent Welcome Garden, deer browsed the top several feet of the columnar holly shrubs to the shrubs’ trunks. They also nibbled the tips of the two short Dwarf Eastern White Pines.
2019- In early March, with no snow on the ground, there is evidence of light deer browsing on the top shoots of the ‘Otto Luyken’ laurels, more on one than the other. In the adjacent Welcome Garden, deer browsed the columnar holly shrubs to the shrubs’ trunks. By mid-summer, the laurel is full; the width is as expected, though the plant is shorter than expected. The hollies in the adjacent garden show growth at the tops, but the sections nibbled over the winter are not as full.
2018- In early March, with about 10 inches of snow on the ground, evidence of light deer browsing on a portion of the ‘Otto Luyken’ laurel above the snow line. In the adjacent Welcome Garden, the deer browsed the holly shrubs. In mid-March, deer rubbed the bark off a section of sumac shrub in the Natives and More garden.
2017- In mid-January, with about a foot of snow on the ground, evidence of heavy deer browsing on the ‘Otto Luyken’ laurels. In the adjacent Welcome Garden, the deer browsed several holly shrubs.
In mid-May, fresh growth on the laurels shows the plants are recovering well after winter deer browsing. In the adjacent Welcome Garden, the hollies are recovering with fresh growth.
2016 – No evidence of deer browsing until April, when a few nibbles are evident on the 2 smaller of the 3 ‘Otto Luyken’ laurels. These 2 shrubs were planted in 2014 and are about 18″ tall. Not related to deer browse, a pieris ‘Fire N Ice’ and a hinoki died, both likely due to a warm October, then cold snap in November and the plants were not yet dormant. Both were planted in 2014 and removed in 2015.
2015 – No evidence of deer browsing in the Deer Garden.