Slug Resistant Plants
The plants you select for your garden can have a great impact on how much trouble you will have with slugs and snails. Start off with plants that resist the little slimers and you will save yourself years of trouble.
Slugs and snails love tender, succulent leaves so choosing plants with leathery, stiff or aromatic leaves can really lessen the trouble you will have. Next time you’re at the garden center why not save yourself the heartache and choose from the list below?
Most woody plants and ornamental grasses are quite resistant.
Astilbe Light and airy flower clusters, 1-3 ft. plants for shady perennial borders.
Baby’s Tears Soleirolia, a delicate creeping groundcover 2-4 inches high. Golden and varegated varieties are available.
Bedding Begonias Used most often as annual bedding plants, prefers light shade, a long-flowering charmer with succulent looking leaves in greens and reds.
Bamboo Clumping and running varieties from 3-50 ft. tall. A grove of large bamboo is a beautiful sight but even underground barriers may fail to contain running varieties.
Banana, cold hardy Large leaves up to 6 ft. long add a touch of the tropics to your yard. Smaller varieties can be grown in containers and brought in each autunm.
Bleeding Heart Graceful fern-like foliage, partial or full shade with heart shaped flowers, often in pink or rose. Perennial 1-3 ft. tall.
California poppy Yellow or orange flower above divided, dusty-looking foliage. Used as a Summer annual in colder areas. Weedy looking in the Summer but good for naturalizing.
Campanula ‘Bellflower” Most are spreading perennials. Many varieties and flower colors. Prefers partial shade.
Coral Bells Heuchera, Evergreen clumps of lobed leaves. Many grown for colorful foliage in reds and yellows. Prefer afternoon shade.
Crocosmia Sword shaped leaves form clumps. Bright red or orange flowers are attractive to hummingbirds.
Cyclamen Forms low, perrenial clumps of attractive leaves with pink or rose flowers above. C. hederiflolium is a vigorous and hardy variety. Full sun or partial shade.
Epimedium Forms a slowly spreading clump of leathery heart shaped leaves.6-9 inches high. Prefers partial shade but will tolerate dense shade. Spikes of flowers in the spring.
Euphorbias ‘Spurge’ Varieties from low mounds to small shrubs, all have toxic sap. “Mole Plant” is one variety.
Ferns Varieties are avaiable from 4″ to 50 ft. in the tropics. Grown for beautiful foliage in green or reddish hues. Partial or full shade.
Foxglove Tall spires of tube shaped flowers rise over clumps of hairyleaves. Attracts hummingbirds. Biennial, so it flowers the second year. Moist soil, shade to sun.
Fuchsias
Sweet woodruff
Salal
Geraniums
Grasses, ornamental
Hedychium
Hellebores
Hydrangeas
Impatients
Ivy
Japanese anemones
Juniper and other evergreens
Lady’s mantle
Lantana
Lavender
Linnaea
Lobelia
London Pride
Mints
Mock Strawberry
Nandina
Nasturtiums
Oxalis oregana
Penstemon
Phlox
Rhododendron
Rosemary
Roses
Sage
Sanseveria
Sedums
Sempervivum
False Soloman’s seal
Taxus
Creeping Thyme
Veronica
Vinca
Viola
Yucca
Favorite Plants of Slugs and Snails
Basil
Beans
Begonias, Tuberous
Cabbage
Canna lillies
Coleus
Dahlia
Delphinium
Gentian, Autumn flowering
Hostas
Lettuce
Lillies
Marigolds
Mustards
Primrose
Strawberries (the fruit, not the plants)
Turnip seedlings