Is clumping bamboo deer resistant?

Deer will eat any plants if they are hungry enough. In my conversations with bamboo growers around the USA most say that deer are in their groves but are not a problem. However, some have said that if the local deer get a taste for bamboo, then they will eat the shoots.

Plant Care - Bamboo Bend

www.bamboobend.com/care.htm

Refer to Green Gardening with Ann Lovejoy of Log House Plants, regarding "Deer Resistant Plants." Sadly, when it comes to real living plants, “deer proof” is not a realizable goal. The best we can hope for is to come up with a list of generally deer resistant plants. What that usually boils down to is

1) a roster of plants that are outright toxic (castor beans, foxglove);

2) plants that deer don’t like well enough to eat all of (ivy, lavender), and

3) plants that grow faster than the deer can eat them (bamboo, grasses).

Bane or Beauty?

Voracious and charming, greedy and beautiful, deer can be the bane or the grace of the garden. Although young deer will eat pretty much anything, mature deer are more discriminating. Sort of. Though there really is no such thing as a deer-proof plant, there definitely are deer resistant ones. Often these are plants with hairy, smelly, waxy, dense, or highly textured foliage.

Over the years, I’ve seen many lists from all over the county citing plants deer love and plants deer hate. Amazingly, some of the same plants appear on each list. Evidently deer in one region happily eat things that deer elsewhere don’t.

Deer in my neighborhood don't bother my bamboo, but LOVE my roses.

The elk, however make a mess of my whole yard, especially the lawn.

Mitch Brinnon, WA