Is Lemon Balm deer resistant?

Lemon-scented mint relative that deer will not touch. It seeds itself everywhere, so cut it back before it flowers unless you want a lot of it.

Do deer eat lemon balm?

Rarely. Rutgers rates Melissa officinalis Rarely Damaged, A, Iowa State lists it in the top tier of herbs, and NC State lists deer and rabbits among what it resists, with drought, heat, humidity, poor soil and insect pests. It is a mint, the scent is the reason, and it is strong enough to put lemon balm in the small group of plants a deer does not test.

Lemon balm is not bee balm

The two are confused in searches often enough to say so here. Lemon balm is Melissa, a lemon-scented mint relative with small white flowers, top tier. Bee balm is Monarda, a taller native with showy red or purple flower heads, one tier down at Seldom Severely Damaged. If the question is whether the hummingbird plant with the red flowers is deer resistant, the answer is on the bee balm page.

Where it grows

NC State: zones 3a to 7b, 1 1/2 to 2 feet, full sun or partial shade, flowering summer into fall. The warning is the mint family's: "This plant self-seeds and spreads aggressively by rhizomes, so it is best to grow in a container," and "Lemon balm has escaped gardens and naturalized in parts of the United States." Cutting it back before it flowers is the only way to keep it in one place in open ground.

Protecting lemon balm

Nothing.

If it is browsed

A browsed lemon balm regrows from the runners inside the month and does not notice; cutting it to the ground in midsummer is standard practice and it comes back fresher.