Is Boxwood deer resistant?

Alkaloids make it genuinely unpalatable, and it is the default evergreen hedge for gardens where deer have eaten everything else.

The modern problem is boxwood blight, a fungal disease that has spread widely since arriving in North America around 2011. It shows as dark leaf spots and black streaks on the stems, then rapid defoliation from the bottom up. There is no cure. It survives in fallen leaves and on tools, so buy from a clean source, avoid overhead watering, and clear debris out from under the plants.

Boxwood leafminer is the other common complaint and is cosmetic by comparison. Roots are shallow and resent cultivation, so mulch rather than dig around an established hedge.

Do deer eat boxwood?

Rarely. Rutgers rates Buxus sempervirens Rarely Damaged, A, and NC State calls it "generally tolerant of rabbits and deer," with drought on the same list. The leaf carries steroidal alkaloids and the whole shrub smells of something a deer does not want, which NC State files, fairly, as "malodorous." A clipped boxwood hedge in deer country is the one hedge that reliably reaches the height it was planted for, and the evergreen shrubs page ranks it first for that reason.

Where it grows

NC State: zones 5a to 8b, 5 to 20 feet in time, full sun or partial shade, inconspicuous spring flowers. The ASPCA lists boxwood as toxic to cats, dogs and horses; NC State rates the severity Low, "nausea, vomiting, diarrhea," and the callout below carries it. What kills boxwood is blight, and winter burn, and the deer get blamed for the second: a browse line is ragged and low, winter burn is bronze and on the exposed side.

Protecting boxwood

Nothing from deer. From blight, a clean source, no overhead watering and the fallen leaves cleared, since there is no cure once it is in.

If it is browsed

Boxwood breaks new growth from old wood, which is why it can be clipped, and a shrub browsed in a hard winter fills in over the following season. Buy the largest plants the budget allows rather than more small ones; boxwood is slow, and the years are the cost.