Lobularia?

Most herbs seem to be resistant, and here is a list of annuals, rated for resistance. I like Nasturtiums for ease of sowing from seed but they have a B rating on the list so I don't know if deer would bother them. California poppies have done well for me.

Here is a link that might be useful: deer resistant annuals

Thanks for the suggestions. I particularly appreciate the agricultural department list of deer resistent plants. Unfortunately, I have tried nasturtium here before and our deer seem particularly partial to them! The list though has given me some great ideas.

dottyinduncan- Here's another list that may be more appropriate since it's for Washington, but it lists Hosta and Solomon's Seal, both of which the deer have been eating in my yard. I had a little Corydalis solida, a tuberous one, come up after I thought I had lost it, and it was even blooming. I went back to look at it and it had been eaten to the ground. Argh. Dahlia is on one list but the deer ate all the blooms off my Dahlias that were unfenced last year.

If you like herbs you might get them to live there since they don't mind dry ground. I like the low-growing oreganos, particularly the variegated ones.

Here is a link that might be useful: wa list

They drive you crazy because one year they leave certain plants alone -- the next they demolish. One year they ate most of the flowers off our Fawn Lilies. The fawns are the worst. They don't know they don't like something, so just bite the flowers off then spit them out on the ground. It isn't practical to fence our property so I rely on a combination of deer resistent plants, a scarecrow and repellent spray. I think I am going to go back to the plants that thrived there in years gone by: purple aubretia, yellow alysum, and white arabis. Perhaps for this year, I will spread cosmos between them for later colour. I am going to keep both of your lists for reference, so thanks.

dottyinduncan- That sounds like a pretty color scheme.

I have welded wire fences around most of my garden beds, and around individual plants in many cases, and extend them upward with bamboo and wire when necessary. It was expensive but should last until they fall apart. I'm trying the plastic deer netting around a new bed this year to see if it will work and how long it will last. I hate it that they eat roses and blueberries in particular. The east coast deer apparently like daylilies but not the ones here as far as I've been able to tell. But there is so much grass, etc. to eat, why do they have to nip off my poor little Corydalis; what is one tiny plant among so many other things to eat? That's what drives me crazy.

The plants they leave alone make me happy, like Narcissus, Pulmonaria, herbs, Comfrey, Vinca, Lamium, Hypericum, Hellebores, and Illicium henryi which is going to bloom for the first time.:-) Many are filling in enough I finally have less weeding to do at least in those beds.

Have you tried blood meal? It seemed to work really well, but I haven't used it in a few years because of the mad cow scare, which I haven't heard much about anymore. I used to also make up my own repellent blending an egg with some cayenne pepper in 2 L of water. I suppose some of the commercial repellents work a lot better or longer. I'm mainly concentrating on barriers now.

I have found with a herd of 10 deer passing thru, that if they don't know if a plant is edible to them, each has to sample it. Even if they don't like it, the plant is pretty much wasted.

And it's true about year to year preferences. Last year, they decimated the trilliums in the forest. This year not a nibble. But last year the trilliums were up and blooming in Feb when not much else was out to eat. This year not till end of March, when there was other stuff to munch.