hostas deer prefer

Now, I need to say right out to begin with that individual deer have
individual preferences, and what they won't eat this year they might
totally destroy next year.

"My" deer haven't eaten any of my primulas that I have noticed. I
haven't had flowers bitten off that I had hoped would set seed.  I
have had plants eaten that would seem to be poisonous.  Arisaema
flowers.  Convallaria leaves - my patches of lily of the valley get
mowed like a lawn.

Two of us in different parts of Victoria have noticed that deer don't
eat variegated or blue hostas.  They much prefer green ones,
especially H. ventricosa, and eat them right to the stalks. Yellow
(like Sum and Substance) are enjoyed, but some parts of some leaves
remain.  Patriot and H.sieboldiana are not touched. This is in an
area of the garden that has these growing fairly close together, and
I usually get individual families of two or three coming to dinner -
our western deer don't feed in herds.

I wonder if it's the colour.  Can't be the texture.  S and S is as
thick-leaved as sieboldiana.  And so are cabbage leaves, which are
top of the list of favourites.

I was just out picking some zucchini and compared the lush zucchini
plants with huge leaves blotched with silver, and big yellow flowers
to my sad-looking hostas.  Maybe I should plant a lot more zucchini
as a foliage plant.

Diane Whitehead  Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
zone 8, Sunset zone 5, cool mediterranean climate (mild wet winter,
mild dry summer)
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