Is Japanese Spirea deer resistant?

Flowers on new wood, so cut it back hard in early spring and shear the spent heads for a second flush. Golden-leaved forms scorch in full afternoon sun in hot regions. It seeds into woodland and roadsides across the northeast and is listed as invasive in several states, so check locally before planting.

Do deer eat Japanese spirea?

Sometimes. Rutgers rates Spiraea japonica Seldom Severely Damaged, B, and Iowa State lists it in the same tier, and NC State singles it out among its relatives: "Unlike some other species of spiraea, this plant may be damaged by deer." The soft new growth and the summer flower heads are what a deer takes, and the shrub survives it.

Where it grows

NC State: zones 3a to 8b, 4 to 6 feet, full sun or partial shade, flowering spring into summer, resisting drought and erosion. It is "classified as an invasive species by the NC Invasive Plant Council" and "listed as invasive in Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and others including the Great Smoky Mountains." A shrub that deer only sometimes eat and that seeds into every roadside is not a bargain, and the sterile cultivars are the only version worth considering where it is not already listed.

Protecting Japanese spirea

Where the flower heads are being taken, one application of the 20 percent egg spray Colorado State rates High at bud stage. In most gardens, nothing.

If it is browsed

It flowers on new wood and is cut hard in early spring in any case, so the browse costs nothing the pruning does not. Shear the eaten heads and it reblooms.