My deer resistant garden needs some foliage with wide leaves. It is a full sun location in zone 7. Between the deer and full sun requirement, I'm coming up short on candidates with wide leaves (other than canna). I've tried colocasia, but the leaves got scorched. I've tried brugmansia, but it wanted a lot more water than I can provide.

Plants up to 4 feet in height are fine. I don't need blooms, but white would be nice.

Deer eat hibiscus/rose of sharon in my garden. Japanese beetles can be a big problem in June.

How much sun can CIMICIFUGA RACEMOSA (a.k.a. Actaea) Black Snakeroot handle? What about ARUNCUS Dioicus/GOATSBEARD? How much moisture do they need? Are they well-behaved?

Thanks,
Cameron

I pulled out the phlomis last year because it looked bad, more than good. I have stachys big ears that melt in midsummer, but bounce back for fall. Same with all of the yarrow and echinops. By midsummer they have to be cut back. They look great right now and will be fine until after they bloom next year.

The garden is primarily full of small-leaved perennials and shrubs such as agastache, salvia, nepeta, monarda, lavender, irises, spirea, buddleia, crape myrtle, leucantha, asclepias. Echinacea have the biggest leaves! :-)

The leaves can get up to 3 feet long and 1 foot wide. They are a little 'fuzzy' underneath giving them a good solid texture. They have staying power for the season. The plant can grow to 7+ feet and have nice yellow blooms late in the season for butterflies and bees.

The new deers will test it out in the fall with nibbles as they do all plants, but this plant will not be touched again. As Gardengal states, they do not like a fuzzy texture.

Rhubarb, whether ornamental or regular, has a wonderful large presence. If you don't cut the bloom stalk off, it will go dormant for a few summer months. Crambe cordifolia is rhubarb-ish and blooms white in late spring.

Inula gets bigger than 4 feet, I think, but fits the order otherwise (yellow flowers though). It is supposed to want a lot of moisture, but it doesn't get it in my sandy yard and is ok (but I'm sure would like more water)

Castor Bean is an annual. There is a dwarf version of it I think. It's poisonous, but this fall I've had leaves disappearing off of it (deer or rabbits). Other years it was untouched. Blooms are usually pink, but maybe they are other colors on other varieties than mine.

Cardoon or Artichoke should be hardy in your zone. I don't know for sure if it's deer-proof. Blooms are lavender and thistle-like

Another annual idea is Tithonia diversifolia, whose leaves get pretty big. The whole plant gets to 16', but that's as a perennial. Yellow blooms, though.

Comfrey has really big leaves, and deer will only chew on it if they're self-medicating, I've been told. (I just got it myself). I don't know how it would do in your conditions, though. Plantfiles show it growing in Hillsborough, and comments from people in hot areas growing it. Flowers are something similar to Pulmonaria.

You could also plant some dwarf magnolias for the foliage.

Have you tried planting the Brug with moisture crystals in the soil? I've started doing that for water-lovers in my sandy soil.

I have castor bean seeds from a friend. I suppose I could create shade with these in order to plant actea or aruncus!

I have grown cardoon at a previous house and it didn't make it through the winter to have it more than one season, but the bloom disappeared so quickly that I think deer may eat those.

I have baptisia (the blue), but it gets eaten to the ground within hours by a nasty caterpillar in late summer leaving a truly ugly mess. In fact, my husband wants me to get rid of those (have several) because of this rapid destruction.

There is an ornamental rhubarb on Heronswood's website called Rheum 'Ace of Hearts' that is stunning!

What about Rodgersia 'Nori Pope'? Anyone growing that one? I can't find any deer info on it.

Thanks,
Cameron

Wasn't pvick growing one of those giants on her balcony?

What is that gold foliage plant in front of the lighthouse?

Really adds a brightness in that spot.

Do Agave grow well for you there? I have always admired them. PDN has a large and interesting collection.

Musa basjoo? Hardy bananna. It gets tall but I think I read it can be kept short by hard pruning.

Maybe some ornamental grass with wide, strappy foliage?

Rodgersias are more of a part shade plant I think. Foliage burns easily in too much sun. Rheum need a good deal of moisture. They might also burn in a lot of sun.
CMK

So many large-leaved plants will scorch in sun... and when I say sun... that's from sunrise to sunset in my garden. Days and days of 80-90 degree temps in the summer. With humidity.

There are also some trees and shrubs that can be cut to the ground each year and will then stay low while producing gigantic leaves. Catalpa, Paulownia, and Ailanthus are a few example but there are more.

I started the Inula from seeds obtained from Gardens North a few years ago. If you want a few seeds, just send me an e-mail. I did get a new one this year from a private garden centre. The leaves are spectacular on that one as well - more ridging, leaves much wider, but not as long - and I am waiting to see how it performs next year. So far so good.

Newbie in NJ,
Yep! I just think it's a nice plant in the gardens. It gives architectural structure, foliage is resistant to disease and pests and retains it's beauty for the growing season, great for late season pollinators, etc. :O) It also won't fall in the many winds we have here due to tropical storms coming up the coast. Oh yes, PV is growing it on her balcony. LOL!

The shrub in the front is a variegated Forsythia known as Fiesta. The stems are a maroon red and it grows slowly. Mine has never flowered, but I grow it for the foliage.

Paulownia and Ailanthus are on the invasive list here, so I can't use those. I am not familiar with Catalpa.

Thanks

Not sure why the cardoon didn't do well for you Cameron. I had two in my garden for several years that thrived on neglect and are not here now only because they got removed to make way first for some grasses and then copper trellises for clematis. I have more seed of the cardoon if you want to try it again. I started some this past spring and kept two for myself and they were at least 3 feet tall the first year in the ground. I started some last year for a friend and they got 6 feet tall and very wide in the second year in her garden.

Regular rhubard does not do well in the south. They tend to melt in our summer heat.

Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm' is rabbit food in my garden, but I don't know if they'll bother the maxima.

Today, I moved some crocosmia and a few shrubs as well as sowed annual seeds for spring. I have a big miscanthus to divide next spring and may be able to work that in for foliage.