Rabbit-Resistant Plants: Beautiful and Numerous

There are numerous rabbit-resistant plants. Solomon’s Seal, Lavender, Allium, Ajuga, and many more… the list is long. These plants allow gardeners and furry garden visitors to exist peaceably.

Recently, I got an impromptu lesson in two approaches to spotting rabbits in the garden. When I told a young visitor that I had just sighted two bunnies, he chased after the rabbits, yelling in an effort to make them scamper from the yard. My own young gardeners, standing as onlookers, were as surprised as I was to see this. They tiptoe quietly to get close to rabbits that stop by. But these are two different approaches. Each stems from past experience with what rabbits can do to what has been planted.

Our visitor is from a family that grows veggies and fruits in their garden. Hungry bunnies in the presence of those plantings spell trouble. Our own yard has many rabbit-resistant plants. Our plantings of Ajuga, Ageratum, Lavender, Solomon’s Seal, and Ferns generally are not food sources for bunnies. This gives us the luxury of enjoying visiting rabbits without having to police them.

Rabbit-resistant plantings do not always live up to their promise of keeping bunnies at bay. This depends on the rabbits’ access to food and level of hunger. But nine times out of ten, a rabbit-resistant plant such as Lavender remains a pretty sight in the garden, a magnet for pollinators, and blissfully boring to bunnies. Rabbits do not eat the Lavender I have planted. They hop through my Ajuga without noticing it beneath their bellies. And silver and purple Perovskia and other Sages and Salvias do not attract them. 

Allium plants such as spring-planted Allium Millenium is of no interest to furry bunnies. I have my Allium Millenium popping up quite visibly now. Perhaps trying to avoid onion breath, the rabbits pass the Allium by, just as they pass by Lavender, Irises, Solomon’s Seal, and so many other plants.

Avoiding Irises seems a “no-brainer” for bunnies. Iris foliage is tough, terminating in points. Similarly, it is hard to imagine a bunny feasting on Sempervivum, a sharp-as-a-pinecone mouthful. But when I focus on a plant like Ajuga, with soft, spoon-shaped foliage and blooms that entice the human eye, I am surprised rabbits take no notice of it. But Ajuga is as rabbit-resistant as can be.

To prove that my resident rabbits do indeed have appetites and are representative of the broader population—not an unrepresentative sample of rabbits that are light eaters or on a fast—I will be first to admit they gorge on my Tulips. As with Allium, the Daffodils that grow near my Tulips stay off rabbit radar. But the Tulips get munched. Truth is, new foliage growth is what they love. The stems and eventual blooms usually stay intact, despite the chewing that lops off some of the leaves.

Rabbits also nibble my Hostas until the Hostas leaf out. At that point, the rabbits lose interest. The plants continue their growth, looking good in the end. Still, they get chewed. So it is no wonder I am surprised that Solomon’s Seal, which looks like Hosta shoots when it first comes up, stays untouched by bunnies. 

Solomon’s Seal is very rabbit-resistant. With Allium near my Solomon’s Seal, and Ajuga close by, whole areas in my garden are safe from the bunnies I love to watch. Ferns are also rabbit-resistant. It seems the bunnies do not like their fronds… too tickly on the tongue, just as the blooms of Ajuga might tickle.

I keep certain things in mind about rabbit-resistant plants: Allium and other plants with an onion-like taste are not on the menu for bunny guests. Neither are Lavender, Sage, and other pungent herbs. Fuzzy plants (add Lavender to that list, too) and those that fluff out with graceful leaves that might tickle (think Solomon’s Seal) are avoided by rabbits. And many, many of the same plants that resist deer likewise resist rabbits. I keep these things in mind. I also take advice from gardener friends and learn through trial-and-error about what is eaten and what is ignored.

I am convinced that any amount of time spent thinking about rabbit-resistant plants saves energy later, when the bunnies show themselves. Taking advantage of rabbit-resistant plants allows us to welcome and enjoy the little guys that cross the yard, rather than worry about what they will chew. For me, at least, it is a pretty good approach.