Is Dotted Blazing Star deer resistant?

The root goes straight down, and everything else follows from that: this is the most drought-tolerant of the gayfeathers, the one that will sit in dry, sandy, limy ground where the rest sulk. Rigid linear leaves, stout spikes of fringed rose-purple flowers, August into October. Grazing deer work round it.

That taproot also makes it a poor subject for lifting. Plant it small, plant it once, and keep it out of irrigated beds, because ground that stays damp will rot it where dry ground never does. Give it two or three seasons before judging it — the early years go into root, and a young plant looks like a tuft of coarse grass.

If the stems lean in richer soil, cut or mow them once during the growing season; the plant comes back bushier and shorter. It is long-lived where it is happy, and untroubled by alkaline soil.