Is Lavender Deer Resistant?

Updated August 2026 · Garden Advice Guide

Yes. Lavender is one of the most reliably deer resistant plants you can grow, and Rutgers NJAES places it in the top "rarely damaged" tier of its landscape ratings. The reason is chemistry: lavender foliage is loaded with essential oils, mainly linalool, linalyl acetate, and camphor, which make it overwhelmingly aromatic and bitter to a browsing animal that navigates by smell. Deer will nibble lavender only under severe pressure, and even then it's usually the flower stems rather than the plant.

Lavender is fussy about winter, so check before you buy. Find your zone free with our Growing Zone Lookup and match it to the variety table below.

The catch isn't the deer. It's that most people kill lavender within two years by treating it like a normal perennial. Lavender wants poor, gritty, alkaline soil and less water than you think, and the single most common cause of death is a well-meaning gardener with a hose and a bag of compost. This guide covers why lavender works against deer, which varieties survive where, how to actually grow it, and how to use it as a scent barrier around the plants deer do want.

Is Lavender Deer Resistant? Why Deer Avoid It

Deer are selective browsers with an extraordinary sense of smell. That nose is a survival tool for detecting predators, and a plant that floods it is a plant worth walking past. Lavender does three things at once:

1. Volatile oils, in high concentration. Lavender foliage and flowers carry 1 to 3 percent essential oil by dry weight, which is high for a garden plant. The main components are linalool and linalyl acetate (the sweet floral notes) plus camphor and 1,8-cineole (the sharp medicinal notes). Camphor in particular reads as strongly repellent to browsing mammals. Lavandin types, which carry more camphor than English lavender, are if anything slightly more offputting.

2. Bitter, resinous taste. Even a deer that takes an exploratory bite gets a mouthful of terpenes. That's a one-time lesson. Deer learn plants and remember them.

3. Fuzzy, dry foliage. Lavender leaves are covered in fine silvery hairs and hold little water. Soft browsers prefer succulent, thin-walled leaves. Lavender is closer to chewing a dried herb.

Compare that against the profile of a plant deer love: hosta, tulip, impatiens, and daylily all have smooth, unscented, water-rich leaves. That single contrast explains most of a deer resistant plant list.

Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station publishes Landscape Plants Rated by Deer Resistance, which most nursery tags borrow from. Its highest grade means "rarely damaged," not "never damaged." That distinction matters. No plant is deer proof. In a drought year, a deep-snow winter, or a yard with a resident herd and no other forage, deer will eat almost anything. Lavender simply sits near the very end of that queue.

Do Deer Ever Eat Lavender?

Occasionally, and it's worth knowing the three situations where it happens.

Brand new transplants. A lavender straight from a greenhouse has been watered daily, fertilized, and grown in shade cloth. Its oil concentration is far below what it will be after a season in full sun. Nursery lavender smells noticeably weaker than established lavender. Give a new plant a repellent spray on planting day and again at two weeks.

Flower stems in late spring. Some deer will strip the flower spikes while leaving the foliage untouched, which looks alarming but doesn't harm the plant. This is opportunistic, not preference.

Severe winter pressure. Lavender is evergreen or semi-evergreen in most of its range, which makes it one of the few green things standing in February. Deer in a hard winter with deep snow will browse plants they ignored for a decade. This is the exception that proves the rule.

What almost never happens: a deer eating an established lavender plant to the ground in a normal season. It's one of the safest bets in the garden.

Lavender Varieties Compared: Zones, Size, and Oil Content

The lavender you can grow depends almost entirely on your winter, and this is where most disappointment starts. The gorgeous rabbit-eared Spanish lavender at the big-box store in April is a zone 8 plant, and it's being sold in zone 5 as though it's perennial.

Read that table this way:

If you're in zone 5 or 6, buy English lavender or a hardy lavandin. 'Munstead', 'Hidcote', and 'Phenomenal' are the three that survive real winters. 'Phenomenal' was selected specifically for cold hardiness and humidity tolerance, and it's the most forgiving lavender in the eastern half of the country.

Lavandins are bigger and oilier. Lavandula x intermedia is a cross between English lavender and spike lavender (L. latifolia). The hybrids are larger plants with longer flower stems, later bloom, and higher total oil yield with more camphor. That makes them the commercial oil crop, and it makes them the better choice for a deer barrier by a small margin. The tradeoff is fragrance quality: English lavender smells sweeter and is what you want for culinary use and sachets.

Spanish and French lavender are zone 8 and 9 plants. They bloom earlier and longer and they're beautiful, but they will not overwinter in zone 6. In cold climates, grow them as annuals or in pots you can bring into an unheated garage. Lavender is one of several kitchen herbs whose hardiness decides the whole plan, and perennial herbs by zone covers where rosemary, bay and lemongrass survive outdoors.

Bloom time is a planning tool. Pair 'Munstead' (June) with 'Phenomenal' (July into August) and you get a lavender border in flower for close to ten weeks.

How to Actually Grow Lavender (Where Most People Go Wrong)

Lavender is a Mediterranean subshrub. It evolved on dry, rocky, alkaline hillsides. Nearly every lavender failure in an American garden traces back to giving it good garden conditions instead.

Full sun, minimum 6 hours, 8 is better. Shade produces floppy growth, poor bloom, and weak oil concentration, which also weakens the deer resistance.

Sharp drainage is not negotiable. This is the whole game. Lavender tolerates drought easily and tolerates wet feet not at all. Root rot in heavy clay is the number one killer. If your soil holds water for more than an hour after rain, do one of these: - Plant on a raised berm 8 to 12 inches high - Amend the planting area heavily with coarse sand, pea gravel, or crushed granite (not fine sand, which makes concrete with clay) - Build a raised bed or use large containers

Lean, alkaline soil, pH 6.7 to 7.3. Rich soil produces soft growth and less oil. Do not add compost, manure, or a high-nitrogen fertilizer. If your soil is acidic, work in garden lime at the rate your soil test recommends. Oregon State University Extension's lavender guidance is blunt about this: fertility should be low, and drainage and pH are what determine whether the plant lives.

Water like you mean to neglect it. Water deeply twice a week for the first month while roots establish. After that, established lavender needs water only in extended drought. Overhead watering that wets the foliage invites fungal problems in humid climates. Use drip or water at the base.

Mulch with gravel, never bark or compost. Organic mulch holds moisture against the crown and rots it. A 1 to 2 inch layer of pea gravel or crushed stone does the opposite: it sheds water, reflects heat up into the plant, and keeps the crown dry. It also looks right.

Space for airflow. Crowded lavender in a humid summer gets fungal dieback. Space at the mature width of the variety, not closer.

Prune once a year, after bloom, by about one third. Cut back roughly a third of the plant's height once flowering finishes, shaping it into a mound. Never cut into bare woody stems with no leaves. Old lavender wood does not resprout, and a hard cut into it kills that branch permanently. Annual light pruning from year one is what keeps a plant compact for 10 to 15 years instead of splitting open into a woody mess by year four.

Timing matters in cold zones. Stop pruning by roughly mid-August in zone 5 and 6. A late cut pushes soft new growth that won't harden before frost.

Zone 5 winter protection: - Site it on a slope or against a south-facing wall or foundation - Do not cut it back in fall; let the standing growth catch snow and insulate the crown - Keep gravel mulch over the root zone, never bark - After the ground freezes, lay evergreen boughs loosely over the plants to buffer freeze and thaw cycles - Winter wet kills more zone 5 lavender than winter cold does, so drainage is your real insurance

Using Lavender as a Deer Barrier

This is where lavender goes from a nice plant to a strategic one. An unbroken aromatic edge along the approach to a bed measurably cuts how often deer step into it. It works by masking the scent of what's behind it and by making the entry point smell wrong.

The rules that make it work:

1. Unbroken beats scattered. Deer walk through gaps. A continuous line does the job; three lavender plants spaced across a 20-foot bed does not.
2. Put it on the approach side. Watch where the trail comes from. That's the edge that needs the barrier, not the side facing your window.
3. Space at mature width so the plants knit together. English lavender at 24 inches, lavandin at 30 to 36 inches.
4. Stack it with other aromatics. A mixed aromatic edge of lavender, catmint, and Russian sage is stronger than lavender alone and blooms far longer. See our page on Russian sage and deer for how that third plant rates on its own.
5. Treat it as a speed bump, not a fence. A hungry deer with a target on the other side will step over it.

Worked Example: A 20-Foot Lavender Border

You have a 20-foot bed edge and you want a lavender barrier along the deer approach.

Step 1: Pick the variety and the spacing. - 'Munstead' or 'Hidcote' English lavender at 24-inch spacing: 20 ft ÷ 2 ft = 10 plants - 'Phenomenal' lavandin at 30-inch spacing: 20 ft ÷ 2.5 ft = 8 plants

Go with 'Phenomenal' at 8 plants for a fuller, taller, longer-blooming barrier that also handles humidity better.

Step 2: Choose the pot size. Eight plants either way, but pot size is the biggest single swing in what this project costs you. - 8 plants in quart pots - Or the same 8 plants in 1-gallon pots, which is close to double the outlay

Quart-size lavender catches up to gallon-size within one full season, so the small pots are almost always the better buy. Paying up for gallon pots buys you one season of appearance, nothing more.

Step 3: Work out the soil prep. Prepare a strip 20 ft long by 2 ft wide, dug 8 inches deep and amended one-third by volume with coarse grit. - Volume of the strip: 20 × 2 × (8 ÷ 12) = 26.7 cu ft - One third of that in grit = 8.9 cu ft, which is 1/3 cu yd. Bulk grit is cheaper per cubic foot than bags, but a third of a yard is under most delivery minimums, so ask for the delivered price before you assume bulk wins at this size

Step 4: Work out the gravel mulch. 2 inches deep over 20 ft × 2 ft. - 20 × 2 × (2 ÷ 12) = 6.7 cu ft - At 0.5 cu ft per bag, that's 14 bags. Bulk pea gravel is a fraction of the bagged price per cubic foot, so this is the one line where hauling it yourself in a truck bed genuinely pays

Step 5: The buy list, and what moves each line.

Per linear foot of barrier, a lavender hedge is a small fraction of what even a modest deer fence costs per foot, and it lasts 10 to 15 years with annual pruning. It is also the only one of the two that flowers.

Year one looks sparse. Eight plants on 30-inch centers will not touch until year two or three. Fill the gaps that first summer with sweet alyssum and annual salvia, both of which are aromatic, deer resistant, and happy in lean dry soil. Pull them at frost and let the lavender take the space.

Companion Plants That Share Lavender's Conditions

Every plant below wants the same thing lavender wants: full sun, sharp drainage, lean soil, and not much water. That's what makes them plantable in the same bed without compromise. All of them are also strongly deer resistant, so the whole planting reads as unappetizing rather than one protected plant in a field of temptation.

For a fuller pairing framework across the vegetable garden and ornamental beds, see our companion planting chart. For the long-lived structural plants that hold a deer resistant bed together year-round, see deer resistant perennials.

What Lavender Does Not Do

Honesty section, because the internet oversells this plant.

Lavender does not repel deer from neighboring plants at a distance. The scent works at close range, on the plant itself and roughly at its edge. A lavender plant does not project a protective bubble. Deer will walk within a foot of a lavender and eat the hosta next to it without hesitation.

It will not save a hosta bed. Ringing hostas with lavender cuts how often deer investigate that patch, and that's real but modest. If deer want hostas, they will get hostas. Hostas need a fence, a cage, or a weekly repellent schedule, not a companion plant.

It doesn't stop rabbits or voles. Different animals, different noses. Rabbits generally leave lavender alone too, but they'll happily take the plants it's supposedly protecting. Voles are worse: they tunnel under gravel mulch and chew roots and crowns, and lavender crowns are vulnerable in a bad vole winter. A layer of coarse gravel in the planting hole helps.

It doesn't work as a barrier in shade. Lavender in part shade grows soft, blooms poorly, and produces far less oil. A weak lavender is a weak barrier.

A lavender sachet on a stake is not a deer repellent. Cut lavender loses volatile oil within days. Living, growing lavender in full sun is what works.

For the full defense plan, including fencing heights that actually stop deer, repellent rotation schedules, and what to do about the plants you refuse to give up, see our pillar guide to deer resistant plants.

FAQ

Is lavender deer proof?

No plant is deer proof, and Rutgers NJAES caps its own scale at "rarely damaged" for exactly that reason. Lavender is about as close as a garden plant gets. In a normal season, established lavender in full sun goes untouched. In a hard winter with deep snow and no other forage, deer will browse it along with almost everything else.

Do deer eat lavender flowers?

Sometimes, yes, even when they leave the foliage alone. A deer will occasionally strip flower spikes in late spring or early summer without touching the plant itself. It looks worse than it is: the plant is unharmed and will rebloom in many varieties after you shear it. Consistent flower browsing usually means very high deer pressure in your yard.

Which lavender is the most deer resistant?

The lavandins (Lavandula x intermedia), especially 'Grosso' and 'Phenomenal', carry the highest total essential oil content with a strong camphor note, which makes them marginally more offputting than English lavender. The difference is small in practice. Pick your variety on hardiness and size first, since every type of lavender rates near the top.

Will lavender keep deer out of my garden?

Not on its own. Lavender protects itself extremely well and, planted as an unbroken border along the approach side, it measurably reduces how often deer step into the bed behind it. It does not create a scent shield at a distance. Use it as one layer alongside fencing or a rotating repellent program if you're growing things deer genuinely want.

Is lavender deer resistant in winter?

Less so than in summer. Lavender is evergreen to semi-evergreen through most of its range, which means it stays green and available when the rest of the landscape is bare. That's when the rare browsing happens. It's still one of the safer winter-standing plants, but expect the occasional nibble in a deep-snow year.

Why is my lavender dying if deer aren't eating it?

Almost certainly water or soil. Lavender dies from wet roots, heavy clay, rich soil, organic mulch piled against the crown, or too much shade. It rarely dies from cold alone in its hardiness range; it dies from winter wet. Check drainage first, then pH (it wants 6.7 to 7.3), then sun hours.

How far apart should I space lavender for a deer barrier?

Space at the mature width of the variety so the plants knit into a continuous line: 24 inches for English lavender like 'Munstead' and 'Hidcote', 30 to 36 inches for lavandins like 'Phenomenal' and 'Grosso'. A 20-foot border needs about 10 English plants or 8 lavandins. Gaps are where deer walk through, so unbroken matters more than dense.

What can I plant with lavender that deer also avoid?

Catmint, Russian sage, salvia, yarrow, artemisia, santolina, creeping thyme, oregano, and sage all want the same full sun and sharp drainage, and deer skip every one of them. Rosemary belongs on the list too if you're in zone 8 or warmer, or growing 'Arp' in zone 6. Catmint is the single best partner because it blooms both before and after lavender.

Updated August 2026

A note on numbers. This page gives you spacings, plant counts, soil volumes and depths, not dollar figures. Lavender, grit and gravel are priced by your nursery, your region and the season, and we do not set any of it. Work out the quantities here, then price that short list at a local nursery and a landscape supply yard.