Is Impatiens deer resistant?

Succulent and defenseless, one of the first annuals stripped. For deer-prone shade use ferns, hellebore or lungwort rather than another annual.

Do deer eat impatiens?

Yes. NC State's entry for Impatiens walleriana says "deer like to browse the plants" and "deer can be troublesome"; Rutgers rates it Occasionally Severely Damaged. It is watery, soft, grown in the shade a deer walks through on the way to the yard, and flowering at exactly nose height. NC State lists rabbits among the things it resists, which is the one animal a bed of impatiens is safe from.

Keeping deer off impatiens

Placement first, spray second. A bed against the house, under the porch light, in the traffic the third tier depends on; then the 20 percent egg spray Colorado State rates High from planting out, reapplied in about thirty days through the summer. Impatiens are cheap enough that a flat lost in June is replanted, which is why most people never protect them and why the plant sits where it does on the list.

Do impatiens come back after browsing?

Usually, and quickly. The plant branches below a bite and refills in a few weeks in warm weather. The thing it does not come back from is impatiens downy mildew, Plasmopara obducens, which NC State says fungicides will not control; the New Guinea impatiens, Impatiens hawkeri, is resistant to it and no better with deer. For a shaded bed that has to survive both, the rarely damaged annuals are ageratum, flowering tobacco, heliotrope and wood forget-me-not, and the shade page has the perennials.