The Hosta Companion Plant That Deer Are Unlikely To Snack On

Hostas (Hosta) are the lush, leafy darlings of any shade garden worth its salt, and for good reason. This perennial offers up gorgeous texture and large leaves for the darker corners of your yard. But let's be honest: They're also a favorite snack for local wildlife, namely deer. If you're sick of constantly discovering chewed-up stems on your hostas, you'll need a good defense strategy to keep them safe and looking pretty. Why not plant some charming forget-me-not (Myosotis sylvatica)? It's exactly the hosta companion plant that animals like deer will actively avoid.

So why exactly is this beautiful plant so repulsive to them? Forget-me-nots have leaves that are scented and have lots of texture, which deer dislike. By planting a dense ring of these dainty blue buds around the base of your hostas, you'll create a barrier that's both protective and lovely. Foraging deer will likely take one sniff of the unappetizing border and move on to find a better meal elsewhere. Meanwhile, the bright and delicate blue blooms of the forget-me-nots pop perfectly against the huge, solid green leaves of the hosta. Plus, successfully growing forget-me-nots is easy. And since both plants thrive in partial shade and prefer moist soil, they're natural companions. Together, they'll help your shade garden thrive and look great.

While this pairing sounds like a dream, there's a catch. Forget-me-nots are a self-seeding flower that can easily become weedy and take over if you allow it to go to seed. This flower absolutely loves a shady, moist environment, and once it's settled, it'll assertively drop seeds to expand its territory far beyond its hosta home base.

If you do plant forget-me-nots, you have to stay on top of maintenance to keep them in check (and your garden looking magazine-worthy). The way to do this is with regular deadheading. This flower thrives in USDA hardiness zones 3 through 8, and as spring wraps up and the bright blue flowers begin to fade, grab your garden snips and cut back every spent bloom you see before those seed pods have a chance to drop, mature, and scatter across your yard.

If a few rogue seedlings do manage to sprout up in unwanted places the following spring, don't panic. Forget-me-nots are easy to just pull right up out of the dirt by hand as needed. By taking advantage of a plant that keeps deer away and a little bit of strategic snipping, you can keep your forget-me-nots in check while enjoying the gorgeous, pest-resistant benefits they offer your lovely hostas.