Is Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus) deer resistant?

Deer browse the new growth and the flower buds where pressure is high, and generally leave the woody framework alone. Established shrubs shrug it off.

It leafs out very late, often not until well into May, and every spring a certain number of people conclude theirs died over winter and dig it up. Scratch the bark before you do: green underneath means wait.

The real nuisance is seedlings. The species sets prodigious quantities of viable seed and it germinates everywhere, including in paving cracks and neighboring gardens. It is listed as invasive in parts of the southeast for exactly this reason. Sterile and low-seed cultivars now exist and are the sensible choice.

Do deer eat hibiscus?

Which hibiscus matters. This page is rose of Sharon, Hibiscus syriacus, the hardy shrub: Rutgers rates it Seldom Severely Damaged and NC State's entry calls it "mildly resistant to damage by deer," listing deer alongside heat, salt and wet soil among the challenges it resists. The tropical hibiscus sold in pots, H. rosa-sinensis, is a different plant and is not rated on this site; the soft, glossy growth that makes it a patio plant is the kind deer take first, and no source consulted here scores it.

What deer take from rose of Sharon

The new shoots and the flower buds, on a shrub that reaches 8 to 12 feet in NC State's figures, so a mature plant carries most of its buds above a deer's reach and loses the lowest ones. Young plants are the exposed ones. A three-foot rose of Sharon in its first two years has every bud within reach and no framework to spare.

Does it recover?

Better than most shrubs, because it flowers on new wood. NC State: "spring pruning will encourage flowers on new growth and will increase flower size," which means a shoot browsed in May regrows and buds on the regrowth in the same season. A cage for the first two winters, until the plant is above browse height, is most of the protection it will ever need. The seedlings above are the bigger nuisance: NC State reports it invasive in Virginia and Kentucky, and a sterile cultivar solves that. It does nothing for the deer.