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Do Deer Eat Vinca or Periwinkle? (Read This First!)

Deer is considered herbivorous animals that will eat any type of plant herbs, fruits, and even vegetables to survive. Usually, they live in the wild areas and survive by sourcing foods from there. And today’s article we will discuss if the deer eat vinca or periwinkle. 

Do deer eat vinca or periwinkle? 

The deer do not eat vinca or periwinkle, since they do not taste good to deer. These flower plants are used as deer resistant due to the odor they produce. In addition to that, these plants keep your garden blooming throughout the summer and keep the deer away from your garden.

Deer is considered an herbivorous animal since they live by eating plants, leaves, herbs, fruits, as well as vegetables. They have a strong-smelling sense that they usually use to search for food.

As a result, they cannot resist any strong pungent aroma spreading from flowers or any plants. If you are living in a deer-infested area, you may have faced frequent deer invasions in your garden.

Vinca or Periwinkle is such type of a flower that spreads a beautiful smell. When you plant vinca or periwinkle in your garden, it will spread a beautiful, strong, and pungent aroma that will spread throughout the garden and help to keep the deer away.

Generally, planting vinca or periwinkle is an effective solution to keep the deer away because they will bloom throughout the summer.

As a result, it will keep your garden away from deer invasion for a longer period. Below is a brief discussion on a few parts of vinca flowers and discussed whether they are eaten by the deer or not: 

Vinca flowers: 

The deer do not like the vinca flowers at all. The vinca flowers spread a beautiful smell throughout the garden, which is disliked by the deer. As a result, most of the time tend to avoid eating the flowers.

Vinca plants: 

No, the deer do not like to eat vinca plants. Vinca plants are popular for being hardy annual flowering plant that is drought resistant. Due to the spread of flowers, deer cannot come close to the vinca plant.

Vinca vine or ground cover: 

Usually, the deer do not like any part of the vinca flowers, including vines or the ground cover, and will not eat them unless they are hungry and in desperate search of food.

Since the deer is considered an adaptive animal, they will only eat these plants when they are desperate in search of food, and there are limited sources of food for them.

Are vinca or periwinkle deer resistant? 

Yes, vinca or periwinkle flowers are considered deer resistant. Many gardeners recommend planting these plants in the garden to prevent the deer from coming close to the other plants in the garden.

Are living in a deer-infested area. You may have faced frequent deer invasions in your garden. Due to this unwanted invasion, your trees and plants make it damaged. An invasion can cause serious damage to the plants and disrupt their growth.

That is why many gardeners recommend planting flower plants that have smelling compounds to prevent the deer from coming inside of your garden.

Generally, the deer have a strong-smelling sense, which they used to search for food. However, they cannot smell any flowers or plants that spread a strong aroma. That is why planting vinca or periwinkle is an effective option.

These plants are usually known to be a Hardy flowering annual plant that is drought resistant. They usually bloom throughout the summer and offer sweet-smelling colorful flowers.

As a result, these flowers are loved by the humans, but not the deer. Below is a brief discussion on whether vinca or periwinkle are deer resistant: 

Vinca minor or lesser periwinkle: 

Vinca minor is an effective plant that helps to keep the deer away from your garden. This is a perennial type of ground cover, widely used as a grass substitute on every lawn.

However, it will help you to keep the deer away from your garden as well as your lawn. Lesser periwinkle is also an effective plant that will help to keep the deer away. They are also used as ground cover.

Vinca major or greater periwinkle: 

The Vinca Major is an effective plant that grows about 6 to 8 inches tall. So, you can use them as sloping or carpets in your garden. The strong smell of vinca Major will help to keep the deer away from your garden.

Greater periwinkle is a great option to use as a deer-resistant plant. They will produce beautiful light blue and purple flowers that spread a strong aroma throughout the garden.

Annual vinca: 

Vinca is known to be deer resistant due to its strong-smelling compound. Usually, the flowers bloom throughout the summer by producing sweet-smelling, light, colored blue, purple, pink, and white flowers.

It will not only keep your garden safe from any unwanted deer invasion but also enhance the beauty of your garden.

That is why you can plant annual winker as a ground cover for your garden to keep the deer away from reaching other plants in your garden and damaging them.

Do deer like to eat vinca flowers? 

The deer do not like to eat vinca flowers due to their smelling compounds. That is why vinca is planted as a deer-resistant plant because it spreads a long-lasting smell that is strong enough to keep the deer away from your garden.

So, if you are living in a deer-infested area, you can plant vinca flower plants in your garden to make it safe from deer. In addition to that, the deer is an adaptive animal and can still eat vinca plants if they are hungry and in search of food.

Is vinca poisonous to deer?

Vinca keeps the deer away from your garden by spreading a strong smell, but it is not poisonous to deer.

If you are living in a deer-infested area, you can plant vinca throughout the garden as a ground cover to avoid the deer from getting inside your garden. Usually, the deer have a strong-smelling sense which they use to search for food.

However, they cannot resist the strong smell coming out of any flower. As a result, if you can plant vinca in your garden, it will protect the garden as well as the plants throughout the summer from any deer invasion. 

How to keep deer from eating vinca plants?

If you are living in a deer-infested area, you may have faced unwanted deer invasion in your garden very frequently.

Prolonged invasion in your garden can cause serious damage to your plants and sometimes it makes an even disrupts the growth of the plants.

As a result, the garden will lose its beauty and the plants will not be able to provide you with proper fruits or flowers.

In that case, you can try to use some techniques to keep the deer away from your garden many natural and homemade repellents can be used to keep the deer away from your garden.

You can simply follow the tips given below to keep the deer away from damaging your plants in the garden: 

Build fences around the garden: 

Building physical barriers or fences around the garden is the best option to keep the deer away from your garden and prevent them from damaging the plants.

You can simply build fences that are high enough so that the deer cannot climb them.

It is highly recommended to build fences that are at least 48 inches to 60 inches high. This will prevent the deer from entering your garden.

Put a scarecrow:

Putting a scarecrow in your garden is an effective technique to keep the deer away from your garden.

You just need to make a scarecrow that is almost identical to a human and put them inside of your garden so that the deer cannot come inside of it.

Sprinkle cinnamon powder and egg white: 

Many homemade natural repellents are also considered nontoxic to deer. You can apply them to your garden to keep the deer away.

Generally, you can sprinkle cinnamon powder or egg white which will spread long lasting smell and prevent the deer from entering your garden.

Mass plating around the garden:

You can also try mass planting around the garden along with vinca and periwinkle flower plants that will keep no space for the deer to come and roam inside the field garden and damage the plants.

It will also help you by spreading the strong smell of flowers that will prevent the deer from coming inside your garden.

Final Thoughts

Since the deer cannot resist any flower or plant that spreads a strong pungent aroma, they don’t like to eat the vinca/periwinkle flower plants from your garden. So planting vinca and periwinkle plants in your garden will act as a deer-resistant plant, and will keep the deer away from your garden.