Do Deer Eat Geraniums? Read If You Need To Protect Your Geraniums

potted pink geranium

Geraniums are a beautiful plant to grow in containers on your patio, or in a garden! But if you live in a place with deer, you’ll be wondering do deer eat gerainums?

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It’s important to ask before you plant them so you know whether or not to put up barriers around your garden so the deer don’t eat all of your beautiful flowers!

You may also be interested in: Do deer eat sunflowers?, Best deer netting, do deer eat dahlias?

Do Deer Eat Geraniums?

So to answer the question do deer eat geraniums, not really. Geraniums, like hydrangeas and mums, are not a food choice of deer unless they have no other options.

This won’t necessarily stop a deer from eating your geraniums if it’s near or during winter, when food is scarce. Then they might munch on the leaves of the geranium.

But geraniums have a fuzzy texture on their leaves, and that typically deters the deer from eating them.

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If you’re still concerned about deer eating your geraniums, specifically choose the scented varieties of geraniums, like citronella. This scent will deter the deer away even more, keeping your plants relatively safe from deer.

deer sniffing the ground

Will Geraniums Deter Deer?

The other question around growing flowers and plants is if they’ll deter the deer from eating your other plants too. And no, the geranium won’t completely deter deer from entering your garden.

This will just keep the deer from eating your geraniums!

To deter deer from eating your geraniums and other plants, try growing some herbs! Or deter deer with scent repellant.


Hopefully this gives you some peace of mind when thinking about planting geraniums in your garden when living near deer!

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Looking for information specific to Colorado? Check out Naturalist Perspective!

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