Is Pansy deer resistant?

Eaten readily, and worst in early spring when almost nothing else is green. Pansies planted in March in a deer garden are effectively bait.

That timing is the whole problem. They are sold as the first color of the season, which is precisely the hungry gap between the last of the winter browse and the first real growth, when a deer will eat things it would ignore in June.

They are also a cool-season plant that most people misuse. Pansies want spring and fall, not summer: they stretch, go leggy and stop flowering once nights stay warm. In the south they are a winter bedding plant. Deadhead constantly and they flower far longer.

Do deer eat pansies?

Yes, and the timing above is why the sources differ. NC State tags Viola x wittrockiana deer resistant; Rutgers rates it Occasionally Severely Damaged. A pansy planted in October and flowering through a mild winter, which is how NC State describes its season, "fall for winter and early spring blooms," meets deer that have other things to eat. The same pansy planted in March in a northern garden is the first green thing on the ground in the hungry gap, and that is the plant Rutgers' observers saw.

Protecting spring pansies

Plant them later, or spray them the day they go in. The 20 percent egg mix Colorado State rates High lasts about thirty days, which is most of a spring pansy's useful life before it "eventually succumbs to summer heat." Pots on a step near the door do better than a bed at the curb. In the south, fall planting sidesteps the problem the way the calendar sidesteps it.

Do pansies come back after browsing?

They regrow from the crown and flower again within a few weeks in cool weather, at 4 to 9 inches, smaller than they were. A plant eaten to the ground in March and eaten again in April is not worth a third spray; replace it in May with something from the rarely damaged annuals and keep the pansies for October.