Is Rocky Mountain Zinnia deer resistant?

Out of flower it reads as moss — a dense mat of tiny needle-like leaves, six or eight inches high at most. In flower, from May right through to October, it disappears under small yellow daisies with a dry, papery feel to them, and deer generally leave it alone.

It runs, and that is the thing to know before you plant it. The spread is by rhizome, which is why it gets recommended for holding steep or sandy slopes together, and why something that looked well behaved in year one is past its label size by year three. The other thing it will not take is wet. It comes off dry, chalky, gravelly ground, so irrigation or heavy soil rots the crown out, usually in the first winter and usually with no warning at all.

Seed is unreliable — germination rates are often low — so divide young plants in spring instead. Give it a hot bank or the gravel beside a drive, where the running is an asset.