Updated on September 7, 2026. Ratings below are university browse lists, not a six-pack tag. Confirm local herd pressure before you fill a shade bed with wax begonias and call it deer-proof.
Rarely — if you mean wax begonias, and if the herd is not starving. They are not “deer candy” like hostas or tulips. They are also not a guarantee. Iowa State Extension, compiling Rutgers, Cornell, and Michigan State surveys, lists wax begonia (Begonia semperflorens) as seldom severely damaged — the same annuals column as marigold and salvia, two columns safer than impatiens. Minnesota puts Begonia semperflorens and hybrids on its deer-resistant table: 8 inches to 2 feet, shade- and drought-tolerant once established. Cornell Cooperative Extension of Westchester County’s Master Gardener survey filed Begonia × semperflorens-cultorum with plants rarely or never eaten. Rutgers’ northern-New-Jersey list is the outlier: wax begonia is C, occasionally severely damaged. That is the high-density suburb grade, not a Midwest cemetery bed. For the rest of the shade list, use the deer-proof garden hub and deer-resistant annuals.
| Plant | Bedding / wax is Begonia × semperflorens-cultorum (often labeled B. semperflorens), 6–12 in. on NC State, 8 in.–2 ft on Minnesota. Tuberous is B. × tuberhybrida. Cane types include Dragon Wing and angel wing. Hardy begonia is B. grandis. |
|---|---|
| Verdict | Wax types: seldom damaged on Iowa’s compiled list; on Minnesota’s resistant table; Rutgers C in northern New Jersey. Not hosta candy. Not proof against a starved suburban doe. |
| University rating | Iowa State (July 2022): wax begonia seldom damaged. Minnesota: on the resistant-annuals table. Cornell Westchester: rarely or never eaten. Rutgers: Begonia semperflorens C. Clemson HGIC 1159 and NC State: deer- and rabbit-resistant. UGA Circular 985 (full review Feb. 1, 2016): not on the protect-these list with impatiens, and not on the annuals-rarely-browse table — Georgia is silent. |
| What they eat, when | Michigan State: deer may pluck a small wax plant out of the ground as a taste test even when they do not finish it. Tender new growth after May transplant is the risk window. Raids track deer feeding times. |
| Where it is worst | Unfenced 6-inch plugs at the woods edge in high-density white-tailed deer suburbs — the Rutgers C landscape. Four-foot porch rails. Whiskey barrels at muzzle height. |
| Official sheets | Iowa State — deer damage · Iowa State — growing begonias · Minnesota — white-tailed deer damage · Rutgers deer-resistance list · Clemson HGIC 1159 |
Several plants, one nursery name
Iowa State’s growing sheet (last reviewed May 2024) is the ID you need before you read a deer list. The genus has about 1,500 species. The American Begonia Society splits cultivated types into seven groups by habit. In an Iowa landscape, only wax and tuberous types are common outdoor plants.
Wax / fibrous types are Begonia × semperflorens-cultorum. NC State: hybrids from South American Begonia cucullata (syn. B. semperflorens), 6 to 12 inches, green or bronze leaves, white, pink, or red flowers from spring to frost. Minnesota lists 8 inches to 2 feet. Clemson: bronze-leaved cultivars take full sun; green-leaved types want morning sun and afternoon shade or the leaves scald. Once established, wax types take more drought and heat than other begonias. That is why they replaced mildew-killed impatiens in so many shade beds — and why the impatiens page already points here.
Tuberous types (Begonia × tuberhybrida) have 2- to 4-inch flowers (Clemson), including yellow and orange the wax types lack. They do poorly in the hottest, most humid parts of South Carolina; Iowa: start tubers in March, set plants out in May, dig and store them for winter. A Penn State Monroe / Carbon / Pike Master Gardener survey listed both wax and tuberous begonia as moderately deer-resistant in a shady-entry plan.
Cane types are Dragon Wing and angel wing. Clemson: Dragon Wing grows 2 to 3 feet on arching canes with 5-inch glossy leaves and keeps flowering until frost because it is sterile. Michigan State: large-leaf types have the most resistance because a deer can still yank a small wax plug out of the soil even when it does not want the meal. Hardy begonia (B. grandis) is the perennial: Clemson 2 to 3 feet, Zone 7; Michigan State allows Zone 6 or higher. No land-grant deer table we cite gives it its own grade. Rex types are houseplants grown for leaves, not a shade-bed swap.
What they eat, and when
A deer has no upper incisors. It grasps and tears. On a wax begonia you do not usually get the overnight empty-bed look of a hosta raid. Michigan State is the useful field note: deer still pull small waxy plants as a taste test. You find a hole, a plant lying on the mulch, or a few ragged stems — and the rest of the bed untouched. Texture is the mechanism the extension pages actually name. Do not invent a toxin story for the deer. The ASPCA lists Begonia spp. as toxic to dogs, cats, and horses because of soluble calcium oxalates, with the underground parts the most toxic. That is a porch-pet fact. It is not a Rutgers deer rating.
UGA’s deer circular is blunt about why fertilized landscape plants get hit: deer like nutrition-rich browse, and they get about a third of their water from irrigated, succulent tissue. A watered 8-inch wax carpet at an oak drip line is still succulent tissue — just further down the menu than impatiens. Hanging baskets help only above the browse line. A porch-rail basket at four feet is still in range. Minnesota notes deer can clear as much as 12 feet when motivated, which is why an 8-foot woven-wire fence is the number on the damage pages — see how high a deer can jump. After freeze-up there is no wax begonia left for a January deer. Hardy B. grandis is the winter plant: a dormant crown that can take a late-winter nibble when fat reserves are lowest.
Deer damage vs rabbits vs slugs
Do not treat every missing begonia as a deer. The fixes are different.
- Deer. Ragged, torn stems. A small plant pulled out of the ground. Browse can sit above two feet on a basket. Heart-shaped prints and pellet groups. Minnesota: deer damage looks rough or shredded, not cleanly clipped.
- Rabbit. A neat 45-degree cut, usually within a foot of the ground. Clemson and NC State both tag wax begonias rabbit-resistant, which is a probability, not a fence. Hardware cloth stops rabbits, not deer. Tactics: how to keep rabbits from eating plants.
- Slug / snail. Clemson lists slugs and snails as major begonia pests. Holes in leaves, slime trails, no torn stubs, no hoof prints.
- Botrytis and stem rot. Clemson: Botrytis blight, powdery mildew, Pythium. Leaves collapse in wet shade with no browse. Thrips can move Impatiens Necrotic Spot Virus onto begonias. Pull infected plants. That is disease, not a herd.
In April 2024 a Delaware County, Ohio gardener asked Ask Extension whether deer eat begonias after they had already taken the hostas, with a neighbor feeding deer next door. An OSU Extension Master Gardener volunteer said annual wax begonias are also susceptible and pointed the shade bed at ferns, Epimedium, Pulmonaria, hellebore, and Brunnera. That is one high-pressure yard with bait next door, not a rewrite of Iowa’s seldom-damaged column. Read it as the Rutgers C case: when the herd is trained to the property, “resistant” annuals get sampled.
Where the ratings disagree
Minnesota’s resistant table includes wax begonia, zonal geranium, marigold, and blue salvia. Impatiens and petunia are not on it — which is why those pages tell you to swap. Cornell Westchester put wax begonia with snapdragon and zonal geranium in the rarely-eaten annuals. Iowa State (July 2022) is one notch harsher: seldom damaged, not rarely. Rutgers’ list is built from northern-New-Jersey nursery people, NJAES staff, and Master Gardeners — the same high-density suburbs where hostas disappear. On that list, wax begonia is a C plant.
Clemson HGIC 1159 (revised Oct. 21, 2020) and NC State’s Plant Toolbox both say wax begonias resist deer and rabbit browse. Those are Southeast growing pages, not a 527-plant browse survey. UGA Circular 985 lists impatiens, pansy, petunia, hosta, and rose among plants deer occasionally or frequently browse. Wax begonia is not on that protect-these table, and it is not on UGA’s “annuals deer rarely browse” table either. Georgia is silent. Read that as “not a documented favorite,” not as a guarantee for an Atlanta woods-edge pot.
What works
Plant the right type first. For an unfenced shade bed that used to be impatiens, wax begonia is the land-grant swap Iowa names for mildew and Minnesota names for deer. For a hanging basket a deer can reach, Dragon Wing’s 2- to 3-foot cane habit is the size class Michigan State treats as harder to pluck. Then treat pressure as the real variable. Deck pots that deer will not climb survive; rail boxes do not. If your street already loses hostas, Minnesota’s woven-wire standard is at least 8 feet. A 50-inch micro-exclosure only a few feet on a side can also work, because deer dislike stepping into a tight box. Details sit on how to keep deer out of the garden.
Egg-based repellent belongs on a schedule, not as a substitute for plant choice. Minnesota’s realistic bar is a 50 percent cut in browse as success; 30 percent is more typical if you only spray. Which bottles last is on organic deer repellent. Clemson: space wax plants 6 to 8 inches apart after frost and mass them. A single six-pack in a hosta border is a taste test. A bronze-leaved block in sun, or a green-leaved mass in shade, is a bed the herd walks past when better food exists.
Find 8-foot deer fence on Amazon Amazon associate tag checkcheck-20. We may earn a commission.
Find egg-based deer repellent on Amazon Amazon associate tag checkcheck-20. We may earn a commission.
Find hanging baskets on Amazon Amazon associate tag checkcheck-20. We may earn a commission.
Find wax begonias on Amazon Amazon associate tag checkcheck-20. We may earn a commission.
What does not work
A tag that says “deer-proof begonia.” Surrounding a hosta bed with wax plugs and expecting the waxy leaf to save the hostas. Hair in bags, bar soap on stakes, mothballs, and ultrasonic gadgets — Minnesota lists hair, soap, mothballs, and bone tar as untested home remedies. A 4-foot picket around an 8-inch plant is theater. Feeding the herd to “distract” them trains them to the property; what to feed backyard deer is the page that says don’t. Do not use impatiens as the “shade annual” if deer are the problem. Iowa files impatiens as occasionally damaged and names wax begonia as the mildew-and-browse swap.
Do not confuse pet safety with deer defense. The ASPCA lists soluble calcium oxalates; vomiting and salivation in dogs and cats; kidney failure listed for grazing animals; most toxic part underground. NC State tags wax begonia as a low-severity poison and a problem for cats, dogs, and horses. Keep tubers and rex pots away from pets. That is not why a doe skips the bed.
Three substitutes that already have pages
- Ferns — Iowa State: nearly all ferns are rarely damaged. Same shade the wax begonia wanted. Ostrich, cinnamon, Christmas, lady, and Japanese painted ferns are the usual garden set. The Ohio Ask Extension answer pointed here first.
- Zonal geraniums (Pelargonium × hortorum) — on Minnesota’s resistant list with wax begonia. They want more sun than a classic impatiens bed. Use them where the shade breaks.
- Salvia — Iowa State: seldom damaged. Minnesota lists blue salvia (Salvia farinacea) with the resistant annuals.
Marigolds cover the sunny edge. Lavender is the perennial wall, not an annual swap. The short flower shortlist is what flowers deer do not eat.
Related plants in the same yard
If deer found the begonias, they have already walked the rest of the shade strip. Hostas go first. Impatiens go when you planted the wrong shade annual. Hydrangeas sit on UGA’s protect-these list. Petunias and pansies go when the light opens up. Do not cage one wax block and leave a hosta mound next to it. Layout and cost: how to keep deer from eating plants. Wild diet for the animal is what a white-tailed deer eats. Why the same animals keep looping your yard is the deer as pests page.
FAQ
Are wax begonias more deer-proof than Dragon Wing or tuberous types?
Wax is the type on Iowa’s, Minnesota’s, Cornell’s, and Rutgers’ lists. Dragon Wing is a cane hybrid Clemson sizes at 2 to 3 feet; Michigan State treats large-leaf types as harder to yank out of the ground. Tuberous types sit on the Pocono Penn State survey as moderately resistant, not on Iowa’s annuals table. Buy wax for a massed bed. Buy Dragon Wing for a basket a deer can reach. Neither is a fence.
Will begonias grow back after deer eat them?
Wax types are tender annuals in most states. If enough stem remains, they can push new growth this season. Stubs in July: replant. Tuberous types can resprout from the tuber if the deer did not dig it — Iowa still wants that tuber lifted and stored before frost. Hardy B. grandis dies to the ground in winter and returns from the crown in Zone 7.
Do hanging baskets keep deer off begonias?
Only above the browse line, on a structure a deer cannot stand on. A railing basket is a snack. So is a whiskey barrel.
Are bronze-leaved wax begonias more deer-resistant than green ones?
No university deer list we cite splits the color. Clemson splits them for sun: bronze takes full sun, green scalds. Sun tolerance is not a browse rating. Rutgers still files the species as C.
Sources
- Iowa State Extension — Susceptibility of Plants to Deer Damage (July 2022)
- Iowa State Extension — Growing Begonias in Iowa (May 2024)
- University of Minnesota Extension — White-tailed deer damage (reviewed 2026)
- Rutgers NJAES — Landscape Plants Rated by Deer Resistance
- Cornell Cooperative Extension — Deer Resistant Plants
- UGA Extension Circular 985 — Deer-Tolerant Ornamental Plants (full review Feb. 1, 2016)
- Clemson HGIC 1159 — Begonia (revised Oct. 21, 2020)
- NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox — Begonia, wax types
- Michigan State Extension — Smart gardening with deer: summer bulbs
- ASPCA — Begonia
- Ask Extension — begonias #865138 (Delaware County, Ohio, April 2024)
This is a child of the deer-proof garden guide. Wild browse, not the shade six-pack, is on what deer eat.
