Do Deer Eat Zinnias?

Updated September 2026 · Garden Advice Guide

Do deer eat zinnias? Sometimes. Zinnias are moderately deer resistant, not highly resistant. The rough, sandpapery leaves put deer off in most seasons, so established plants are often left alone. The trouble spots are the two stages when a zinnia is soft: young seedlings and transplants in their first few weeks, and the fat flower buds and blooms later in summer. In a yard with steady deer traffic, expect some of both.

That puts zinnias in the middle of the pack. Our deer resistant annuals list rates them moderate, alongside marigolds and cosmos, and this page explains what that rating means in practice for a zinnia bed.

Zinnias are warm season annuals in every zone, and they go in after your last spring frost. Check your zone in a few seconds with our free growing zone tool to plan the planting window.

Updated September 2026

Do deer eat zinnias, and which parts?

Deer are selective feeders. They pick plants by smell and texture, and zinnias send mixed signals. Here is how the plant stacks up at each stage.

So when people say deer eat zinnias, they usually mean one of two things. Either the seedling row vanished in May, or the tops were bitten off the plants in August, leaving leafy stems with no flowers.

Why deer usually skip mature zinnias

Rough leaves. Zinnia leaves are covered in short stiff hairs that make them feel like fine sandpaper. That texture is unpleasant in a soft browser's mouth.

Little scent reward. Zinnias are not strongly aromatic, so there is no powerful oil to repel deer, but there is also no sweet smell drawing them in.

Upright, stiff stems. Mature stems are fairly firm, which makes stripping less satisfying than a soft, sprawling plant.

Why they still get eaten

Seedlings lack the defense. The rough hairs develop as leaves mature. Cotyledons and the first true leaves are smooth and tender.

Buds and flowers are soft. Deer that ignore zinnia leaves will still bite off flower heads, because petals and buds are tender and packed with sugars.

Nursery transplants are pushed. Transplants from a garden center have been watered daily and fed hard, which makes their tissue softer than a zinnia grown from seed in your own soil.

For context on how zinnias compare with the whole range of summer flowers, including perennials, see our deer resistant flowers guide.

Which zinnia types hold up best

Not all zinnias are equally exposed. Leaf shape, flower size and plant height all change the odds.

Small leaves and small flowers help. The narrowleaf zinnias and the 'Profusion' and 'Zahara' hybrids have smaller, tougher leaves and small flowers. A deer gets less for each bite and the loss is less visible, because a plant carries dozens of little blooms rather than a few big ones.

Big cut flower zinnias are the biggest target. 'Benary's Giant' and similar types carry large, soft flower heads right at deer eye level on tall stems. They are the zinnias most likely to be decapitated in August.

Disease resistance matters indirectly. The 'Profusion' and 'Zahara' series were bred to resist powdery mildew and leaf spot. A healthy plant regrows quickly after a nibble, while a mildew-weakened plant does not. If powdery mildew is a problem in your garden, our powdery mildew treatment guide covers prevention.

If you want tall cutting zinnias in deer country, grow them in a fenced cutting bed or close to the house, and use the compact types for the exposed edges.

Deer damage vs rabbit damage on zinnias

Rabbits eat zinnia seedlings at least as often as deer do, and in many yards they are the real culprit. Identify the animal before you choose a fix, since a 2 foot fence stops rabbits and does nothing for deer.

The fastest test is height. Missing flowers at the top of a 3 foot zinnia are almost always deer. A row of seedlings snipped off at the soil line with clean cuts and the pieces left lying is almost always rabbits.

Deer tear, rabbits cut. Deer have no upper front teeth. They grip and pull, so broken stems look shredded. Rabbits have sharp incisors and leave a neat angled cut.

Groundhogs mimic both. A groundhog eats low and high, takes whole plants, and usually leaves a burrow nearby. If an entire bed disappears in a day, check for a hole under a shed or deck.

Protecting zinnias through the transplant window

The first three weeks after sowing or transplanting decide whether a zinnia bed makes it. After that, the leaves toughen up and most of the risk shifts to flowers.

Direct sown zinnias

Zinnias grow easily from seed sown directly in warm soil after the last frost. Our seed starting tool helps you time an indoor start if you prefer transplants.

1. Sow a little extra. Plant seeds a bit thicker than the final spacing, then thin. A few losses to browsing do not leave gaps.
2. Cover the row with netting or row cover. Lightweight row cover on hoops, or plastic mesh pinned to the ground, protects seedlings from deer and rabbits for the first two to three weeks. Remove it once plants are 6 inches tall and the leaves feel rough.
3. Add a low wire border for rabbits. A 2 foot chicken wire fence with the bottom edge pinned or buried a few inches keeps rabbits out of the seedling bed.

Transplants

1. Harden off first. A week of gradual outdoor exposure toughens nursery grown transplants before they go in the ground. Firmer tissue is less attractive.
2. Spray on planting day. Apply a repellent before the first bite, not after. Deer that feed from a bed once return to it.
3. Reapply at one week and two weeks. New growth appears quickly on zinnias, and new growth is unsprayed growth.
4. Skip the heavy starter fertilizer. Zinnias grow well in average soil. A heavy nitrogen feeding produces soft, lush growth that deer prefer.
5. Cage the most exposed plants. A short welded wire cylinder around each transplant on the deer-facing edge of a bed is quick and reusable.

Spacing matters too

Zinnias spaced tightly hold humidity and invite mildew, and weak plants recover poorly from browsing. Our plant spacing tool gives exact spacing for your bed size. Most compact zinnias want 9 to 12 inches, and tall cutting types 12 to 18 inches.

Protecting flowers from midsummer browsing

Once zinnias are established, the target moves to the flowers. This is the stage where a bed can look lush and green but have no blooms.

Keep repellent on the tops. Spray the buds and open flowers every three to four weeks and after heavy rain. Rotate between two products with different active ingredients, since deer get used to a single scent. Use products labeled for ornamentals, and follow the label directions.

Cut flowers often. Zinnias are cut-and-come-again plants. Harvesting blooms for the vase every few days keeps fewer open flowers sitting in the bed as an invitation, and the plant keeps producing.

Deadhead regularly. Removing spent flowers keeps plants branching and blooming, which helps a bed rebound after a deer visit.

Watch the drought weeks. Late July and August are peak pressure when the season is dry, because a watered flower bed becomes the greenest food in the neighborhood. Increase repellent frequency then.

Use a fence for a cutting garden. If zinnias are grown as a cut flower crop, a simple deer fence around that one bed is more reliable than any spray. The fencing specifications are covered on our main deer resistant plants guide.

Recovery after deer eat zinnias

Zinnias bounce back well, which is one of the best things about them.

• Cut back to a leaf node. Trim ragged, torn stems just above a pair of healthy leaves. Zinnias branch from those nodes, and a browsed plant often ends up bushier than before.
• Water deeply. Steady moisture speeds regrowth.
• Feed lightly. A half strength balanced fertilizer can help a badly stripped plant, but avoid heavy feeding.
• Protect the regrowth. Spray the new shoots immediately, since deer already know where the bed is.
• Expect flowers again in two to four weeks during warm weather.

Seedlings are different. A seedling eaten to the soil line usually does not recover. Resow the gap right away. Zinnias germinate in a few days in warm soil and can still bloom well before frost if sown by early summer. Check your fall frost date with our frost dates tool before a late resowing.

Resistant companions for a zinnia bed

Zinnias pair well with annuals and perennials deer avoid more reliably. Planting them together makes the bed less appealing overall and gives you color even if a few zinnias get nibbled.

For silver foliage at the front of a zinnia bed, dusty miller is one of the most dependable choices, and the two perennials in the table above are covered in more detail on our pages for Russian sage and deer and perennials that bloom all summer. If you are planting sunflowers behind zinnias for a cutting garden, note that sunflower seedlings get browsed hard, as our guide to whether deer eat sunflowers explains.

Design tips:

• Put the tough plants on the outside. Edge the bed with dusty miller, salvia and ageratum, and put zinnias in the middle.
• Plant compact zinnias at the exposed edge, and tall cut flower types farther in.
• Plant in drifts. A block of plants reads as one patch. Scattered single plants invite investigation.

Zinnias compared with other summer annuals

Zinnias sit in the moderate group. They are more resistant than the true deer magnets and less resistant than the aromatic and toxic annuals.

Petunias are a common neighbor to zinnias in summer beds, and they are browsed more heavily. Our guide on deer and petunias covers why and what to plant instead.

FAQ

Are zinnias deer resistant?

Moderately. Established zinnias have rough, hairy leaves that deer often skip, but seedlings, new transplants, flower buds and open blooms get browsed in yards with regular deer traffic. Compact types with small leaves and flowers, such as narrowleaf zinnia and the 'Profusion' series, hold up better than tall, large-flowered cut flower zinnias.

Do rabbits eat zinnias?

Yes, especially seedlings. Rabbits snip young zinnias off cleanly near the soil line, often leaving the pieces lying nearby. A 2 foot chicken wire fence with the bottom pinned or buried protects a seedling bed. Once plants are about 6 inches tall and the leaves feel rough, rabbit damage usually drops off.

What eats the flowers off my zinnias?

If flower heads are missing from the tops of tall plants with ragged, torn stems, it is almost always deer. If petals are chewed with holes, look for earwigs or Japanese beetles, which feed at night or in the blooms. Groundhogs can also take flowers, but they usually eat whole plants and leave a burrow nearby.

Which zinnias are most deer resistant?

Narrowleaf zinnia (Zinnia angustifolia) and the 'Profusion' and 'Zahara' hybrids tend to hold up best. They have small, tough leaves and many small flowers, so each bite takes less and the damage is less obvious. Tall, large-flowered cut flower zinnias such as 'Benary's Giant' are the most likely to lose their blooms.

Will zinnias grow back after deer eat them?

Established plants usually do. Cut torn stems back to a healthy leaf node, water well and protect the regrowth with repellent. New shoots and flowers typically return in two to four weeks in warm weather. Seedlings eaten to the ground rarely recover, so resow those spots right away.

Do deer eat asparagus?

Deer browse tender asparagus spears in spring, though the mature ferns are fibrous and usually left alone. That is a vegetable garden question rather than a flower bed one, and our deer resistant vegetable garden guide covers how to protect spears and which crops deer avoid.

How do I keep deer from eating my zinnias without a fence?

Cover seedlings with row cover or netting for their first few weeks, spray repellent on transplants the day you plant them and again at one and two weeks, and keep rotating repellents on the flowers through summer. Plant compact zinnias at exposed edges, surround the bed with aromatic plants deer avoid, and cut flowers often so fewer blooms sit open in the garden.