My Deer Garden

Plant record · Annual

Is Dahlia deer resistant?

Dahlia sp.

Layered petals of a hybrid dahlia
Photo by Muhammad Mahdi Karim, GFDL 1.2. Via Wikimedia Commons.
Damage step 3 of 4 · Occasionally Severely Damaged

Partly. Browsed where deer pressure is high. Protect it.

Type
Annual
Hardiness
Grown as an annual, any zone
Light
Full sun
Bloom
Summer and Fall
Maintenance
High
Toxic to
dogs, cats, and horses

Damage steps follow a published university field scale. How plants are rated.

About Dahlia

Tubers need lifting and storing frost-free north of about zone 7, or heavy mulching where winters are mild. Slugs destroy the emerging shoots, so protect them from the first day. Pinch the growing tip at four leaf pairs for a bushier plant, and deadhead relentlessly.

Do deer eat dahlias?

Yes, under pressure. Rutgers rates dahlia Occasionally Severely Damaged, the third tier, which is the band where a suburb with light pressure and a lot backing woodland get different answers from the same plant. NC State's dahlia entry does not mention deer at all; its list of what goes wrong is "phytophthora blight and root rot, powdery mildew, crown gall, viruses, and wilts," and slugs on the shoots, which the paragraph above covers. What deer take is the soft growth and the buds, and a dahlia in bud in August is at its most tempting.

Protecting dahlias

Spray from the day the shoots clear the ground: the 20 percent whole-egg mix Colorado State rates High, reapplied in about thirty days, which for a plant that blooms "from late summer to first frost" is four applications through a season. Stake and cage together; a ring of welded wire that supports a tall dahlia also keeps a deer's head out of it. And put the show varieties near the door rather than at the end of the bed, because the tier page's advice for this whole band is that traffic near the house discourages browsing.

Do dahlias grow back after deer eat them?

From the tuber, reliably, as long as the crown is not disturbed. A dahlia browsed in July branches below the bite and is flowering again in a few weeks; a plant browsed repeatedly through a season is a smaller plant with a smaller tuber to lift. NC State's figures are 1 to 6 feet by cultivar and tubers "can be injured at temperatures below 25 degrees F," which is why the lifting above matters more than the browsing does north of zone 7.

Protecting Dahlia

Whether this survives comes down to local pressure, so decide on the options before it gets browsed rather than after.

  1. 1How tall a deer fence needs to beEight feet, and six is the most common expensive mistake in deer fencing.
  2. 2Repellent that actually worksThe egg-based recipe that reproduces the active ingredient in the commercial sprays that win university trials.
  3. 3Check it is actually deerDeer tear and leave a ragged stub. A clean 45-degree cut is rabbits, and slug holes get blamed on deer constantly.

What to plant instead of Dahlia

Same plant type, hardy in the same zones, and rated better for deer. If Dahlia keeps getting eaten, these go in the same spot.

Soil and care

Soil pH
6 to 7
Drainage
Well drained
Water
Moderate
Spacing
18 to 35 in apart
Growth rate
Fast
Maintenance
High

Where Dahlia grows

Hardy across every state on zone range alone. Mountain and coastal areas sit outside the ranges used here, so check your own zone before ordering. Select any state, including one it will not grow in, for what is resistant there.

Alabama — hardy here. Zones 7 to 9.Alaska — hardy here. Zones 1 to 8.Arizona — hardy here. Zones 5 to 10.Arkansas — hardy here. Zones 6 to 8.California — hardy here. Zones 7 to 10.Colorado — hardy here. Zones 3 to 6.Connecticut — hardy here. Zones 5 to 7.Delaware — hardy here. Zones 7 to 7.District of Columbia — hardy here. Zones 7 to 8.Florida — hardy here. Zones 8 to 11.Georgia — hardy here. Zones 7 to 9.Hawaii — hardy here. Zones 9 to 12.Idaho — hardy here. Zones 3 to 7.Illinois — hardy here. Zones 5 to 7.Indiana — hardy here. Zones 5 to 6.Iowa — hardy here. Zones 4 to 6.Kansas — hardy here. Zones 5 to 7.Kentucky — hardy here. Zones 6 to 7.Louisiana — hardy here. Zones 8 to 10.Maine — hardy here. Zones 3 to 6.Maryland — hardy here. Zones 6 to 8.Massachusetts — hardy here. Zones 5 to 7.Michigan — hardy here. Zones 4 to 6.Minnesota — hardy here. Zones 3 to 5.Mississippi — hardy here. Zones 7 to 9.Missouri — hardy here. Zones 5 to 7.Montana — hardy here. Zones 3 to 6.Nebraska — hardy here. Zones 4 to 6.Nevada — hardy here. Zones 4 to 9.New Hampshire — hardy here. Zones 3 to 6.New Jersey — hardy here. Zones 6 to 7.New Mexico — hardy here. Zones 4 to 9.New York — hardy here. Zones 4 to 7.North Carolina — hardy here. Zones 6 to 8.North Dakota — hardy here. Zones 3 to 4.Ohio — hardy here. Zones 5 to 6.Oklahoma — hardy here. Zones 6 to 8.Oregon — hardy here. Zones 6 to 9.Pennsylvania — hardy here. Zones 5 to 7.Rhode Island — hardy here. Zones 6 to 7.South Carolina — hardy here. Zones 7 to 9.South Dakota — hardy here. Zones 3 to 5.Tennessee — hardy here. Zones 6 to 8.Texas — hardy here. Zones 6 to 9.Utah — hardy here. Zones 4 to 9.Vermont — hardy here. Zones 3 to 5.Virginia — hardy here. Zones 6 to 8.Washington — hardy here. Zones 5 to 8.West Virginia — hardy here. Zones 5 to 7.Wisconsin — hardy here. Zones 3 to 5.Wyoming — hardy here. Zones 3 to 6.
Hardy on zone rangeNot hardy — still linked
Choose a state from the listeasier on a phone

Common questions about Dahlia

Is Dahlia deer resistant?
Dahlia (Dahlia sp.) is rated Occasionally Severely Damaged, step 3 of 4 on the damage scale this site uses. Browsed where deer pressure is high. Protect it.
What hardiness zones does Dahlia grow in?
Dahlia is hardy in USDA zones 2 to 11. Outside that range it will either not survive winter or will struggle with summer heat. That is the range across the genus, so a named species or cultivar may be narrower.
Does Dahlia grow in shade?
No. Dahlia wants full sun and will grow thin and flop in shade.
Is Dahlia toxic to dogs or cats?
Yes. The ASPCA lists Dahlia as toxic to dogs, cats, and horses. Site it away from where animals graze, or choose something else if you have a dog that chews.

Browse from here

Every list Dahlia belongs to.

All annuals·Sometimes destroyed·Full sun plants

Hardy in these zones

Zone 3·Zone 4·Zone 5·Zone 6·Zone 7·Zone 8·Zone 9

Damage ratings follow the four-step field scale published by Rutgers University. Growing data is compiled from state extension sources and still being verified record by record. Last reviewed .