Over the spam of 25 years, we have done thousands of estimates and seen all types of deer damage to all different plants and shrubs, some of them surprising. Deer need to eat 30% of their body weight every 3 weeks. Deer eat all year long. They generally eat conifers in the winter and flowering perennials in the spring and summer. Depending on population, density and food availability you tend to see deer eat one plant in one area, and then they may not eat that plant in another location. For example, near Valley Forge Park in PA where deer density is high and food availability is low, deer will even eat pachysandra and holy bushes after they’ve devoured all of the hemlocks and arbravitae. If you see deer eating blue spruce or pachysandra, the deer is starving and will most likely not make it through the winter.

We’ve put together a list of some of the most common plants (in no particular order) that deer love to eat here in the Mid Atlantic region.

Remember, if deer are hungry enough, they will eat almost any plant to survive, except barberry.

#1 Hosta

Deer love hosta because they require minimal effort to eat and have a high water content.

"ACH25 25G" by 2015 Plant Records Photos is licensed under CC PDM 1.0

#2 Yew

Yew is a favorite winter snack among deer in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

"Old Swan House" by HerryLawford is licensed under CC BY 2.0

#3 Azaleas

Deer. love to nip the azalea buds right before they bloom.

Deer enjoy eating flowering plants, like azaleas

#4 Fruit Trees

What better than flowering plants, but fruit trees. If you have deer around your property, you may notice you don’t have a lot (if any) of fruit on your apple or cherry trees.

#5 Arborvitae

Arborvitae are probably deer’s favorite food in the winter. If you start to look around, you should find that many arbs are eaten from the bottom up about 6-ft.

"Good Arborvitae" by jacki-dee is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0