If you’re an avid gardener, you may have trillium planted in your yard. Trillium boast beautiful flowers that add a touch of elegance to any garden. But do deer eat trillium?
The answer is yes – deer will eat the buds, blooms, berries, leaves, and even the stems of trillium. Deer love to eat trillium thanks to their tender leaves and sweet flowers.
Considering that a single deer can eat up to ten pounds of plants each day, you can see how deer eating trillium can really do some serious damage to your garden!
In this article, we’ll discuss how to stop deer from eating your trillium, and keep them healthy and beautiful all season long.
Why Do Deer Eat Trillium?
As we covered, deer will eat every part of a trillium bush (buds, blossoms, stems, leaves, and all) when they’ve got the chance.
But why do they do this?
Deer like lush plants with large, tender leaves, and trillium bushes check every box.
Deer can do some serious damage to a large amount of trillium bushes in a single sitting if they’re hungry enough!
This was confirmed in a 1999 study on deer plant eating habits by Cornell University.
Plants like trillium contain water, sugar, protein, and nutrients, which makes them an ideal food source for deer.
And don’t think that your newer trillium plants are safe either: deer actually prefer new growth because they’re more tender.
Additionally, deer will consume a wide variety of foods like trillium flowers based on opportunity.
Trillium bushes attract deer because they are planted in the ground or in pots, so they’re easy to access.
If you’re not convinced, leave some trillium out or plant some, and wait to see what happens!
What Kinds Of Trillium Do Deer Eat?
We’ll have homeowners ask if deer great white trillium plants, or if they eat a certain type of trillium they have on their property or in their garden.
Great white trillium seem to be a favorite of deer, likely because they can see them the easiest.
Deer will eat all types of trillium including red, little sweet betsy, toadshade, western, prairie, and yellow trillium.
They’ll also chow down on trillium flexipes, trillium catesbaei, trillium nivale, painted trillium, albidum, nodding, sulcatum, stamineum, vaseyi, pusillum, reliquum, simile, persistens, rugelii, lancifolium, discolor, decumbens, decipiens, foetidissimum, petiolatum, and trillium viridescens.
They’ll eat the trillium flowers, leaves, buds, stems, blooms, berries, and everything else they can reach of every trillium species listed above!
How Do I Keep Deer From Eating My Trillium?
There are a few things to keep in mind when you’re protecting trillium from hungry deer: their habits, your scent, repellent options, and when you plant them.
Deer will eat nearly anything if they’re hungry enough, so your main goal is making your garden as least inviting to deer as possible.
Check out our guide on how to keep deer from eating plants where we cover 25 quick and easy tips for keeping hungry deer out of your garden.
Will My Trillium Grow Back After Deer Eat Them?
This really depends on how bad the damage is and what time of year the deer chewed down your trillium.
If deer eat the leaves off, then you usually won’t see them grow again until the next year.
Should deer be allowed continued access to your trillium, then it will eventually die out after a few years!
Be sure to keep your trillium well-watered and fertilized while waiting for it to regrow.
Consider using some of the deer prevention options we outlined above to prevent further damage.
Are Trillium Good For Deer?
Although trillium can be considered toxic for humans, cats, and dogs, they don’t seem to bother deer.
Deer have special digestive systems that allow them to eat things that people or some other animals cannot, which is why they happily munch on trillium without worry.
Additionally, trillium has less of the toxic substances in it when the leaves and plants are younger, which is the time deer are most likely to eat them.
Do Deer Eat Trillium? Wrapping Things Up
So, do deer eat trillium plants?
The answer is yes!
Deer will eat all the trillium they can, especially during spring when they’re hungry after a long winter and the buds, stems, and leaves are the most tender.
Fortunately there are many methods you can use in order to keep deer away from your trillium that we’ve outlined in this guide.
Have any observations to add to the discussion? Be sure to let us know in the comments below.
Check our our other helpful wildlife guides while you’re here:
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- Do deer eat sunflowers?
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- Do deer eat petunia flowers?
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- Do deer eat little gem magnolia?