Updated on September 8, 2026. Ratings below are university browse lists, not a nursery tag. Confirm the linked extension pages before you buy a crate of fans — or before you decide a “deer-resistant daylily” is a real thing.
Yes. Deer eat daylilies. They take the flower buds and open trumpets first, then the tender spring fans. Rutgers Cooperative Extension rates Hemerocallis C — occasionally severely damaged. Iowa State, compiling Rutgers, Cornell, and Michigan State surveys (last reviewed July 2022), files daylily in the same “occasionally damaged” perennial column. That is one step better than hostas (frequently damaged) and a long way from a free pass. Cornell’s Westchester Master Gardener survey and Cornell Cooperative Extension of Oneida County both put daylily with hostas, tulips, and true lilies under plants often or frequently eaten. University of Georgia Circular 985 lists Hemerocallis among plants deer occasionally or frequently browse, and it adds the line that matters in a yard: they prefer the flowers and flower buds.
This page is the daylily answer. Shade-bed candy is hostas. Spring spears that vanish before they open are tulips. Late color in the same “will eat” tier is dahlias. For the rest of the yard, start at the deer-proof garden hub and the wild-diet page what do deer eat.
| Plant | Garden daylilies (Hemerocallis spp.). Not true lilies (Lilium). One flower lasts one day; a clump keeps opening new ones. Height 1–4 ft (University of Minnesota Extension). |
|---|---|
| Verdict | Will eat. Not hosta-level on every list. Protect the scapes in high-density suburbs, or swap the bed. Catalog “deer-resistant daylily” tags are not a university rating. |
| University rating | Rutgers: C, occasionally severely damaged. Iowa State: perennials occasionally damaged. Cornell Westchester and Cornell Oneida: often / frequently eaten. UGA Circular 985: occasionally or frequently browse; flowers and buds first. |
| What they eat, when | New fans at soil-break in spring; then buds and open flowers from June into August (later on rebloomers). Dawn and dusk raids match deer feeding times. Fleshy roots stay underground. |
| Where it is worst | Unfenced sunny borders in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, and other high-density suburban herds. Michigan Ask Extension: they love the blooms and leave the stems. Mule deer in a Utah garden survey hit daylilies far less than tulips. |
| Official plant sheets | Rutgers deer-resistance list · Iowa State deer-damage list · Minnesota daylily culture · UGA Circular 985 |
A daylily is not a lily
Minnesota Extension is blunt: daylilies belong to Hemerocallis and are not true lilies. The name is Greek — hemera (day) and kallos (beauty) — because each flower lasts one day. Iowa State’s lily note is the other half of the mix-up: daylily, calla lily, surprise lily, and water lily are not Lilium. True lilies sit in Iowa State’s frequently damaged bulbs column with tulips. Daylilies sit one bucket better, as a perennial. A deer that strips Asiatic lilies will still take the daylily scapes on the same night; it may leave more foliage on the Hemerocallis.
Minnesota: plants grow 1 to 4 feet high, flower best with at least six hours of sun, and the crown goes about one inch below the soil line. More than 35,000 cultivars are registered. An established clump often produces 200 to 400 flowers in a season, each plant blooming 30 to 40 days. That volume is why a “one-day flower” still looks wrecked after two dusk raids — the deer are taking tomorrow’s buds.
Two plants share the American common name. Orange / tawny / ditch lily (Hemerocallis fulva) is the Asian roadside stand. Michigan State Extension: first documented in Jackson County in 1870; it spreads by stolons and tuberous roots, not by seed; some Michigan municipalities list it as invasive, as do five eastern states. Garden hybrids (‘Stella de Oro’, ‘Happy Returns’) are usually clump-formers. Minnesota flags Stella for numerous buds per scape. Rebloomers keep offering flowers. That is a longer buffet, not a safer plant. No university list I can cite splits the genus by cultivar.
What they eat, and when
Two windows. The first is soil-break. Daylilies are among the first perennials up in a cold spring, when Minnesota says fat reserves are lowest. A new fan is watery and at nose height. The second window is bloom. UGA Circular 985: deer prefer the flowers and flower buds. Michigan Ask Extension, answering a Wayne County gardener who thought “tiger lilies” had died overnight, identified orange daylilies (H. fulva) and said the missing blooms were deer forage: they love the flowers, they are often nocturnal, and they leave the stems. The foliage can look fine. You still lost the show.
Rebloomers stretch the second window. Minnesota is honest that many rebloomers fail in a short northern season, but where ‘Stella de Oro’ actually repeats, every new scape is another dusk snack. Tops die to the ground after frost. The fleshy roots and crown sit about an inch down. Deer do not usually excavate them. If a clump never comes up, look for heaved crowns, vole tunnels, or rot — not a January deer.
A Cache County, Utah, garden survey (Conover and colleagues, 2010–2017, published 2018) recorded the share of leaves and flower buds mule deer took. Daylily browse sat well below tulips and grape hyacinth in those yards. That is Intermountain mule deer, not a northern New Jersey white-tailed deer suburb. Eastern lists — Rutgers, Cornell, UGA — match a Mid-Atlantic or Midwest cul-de-sac. Collar-county Michigan yards that already feed suburban deer — the same animals the Michigan hunt page treats as a reduction-zone problem — are where an unfenced daylily border looks worst in June.
Deer vs rabbits vs slugs vs leaf streak
Minnesota’s field test: deer have no upper incisors, so they grasp and rip. Damage looks rough or shredded, not a knife cut, and it sits well above rabbit height on a scape. Split-heart hoof prints and pellet piles in the mulch close the case. A whole row of buds gone overnight, stems standing, is deer.
Rabbits leave a clean 45-degree cut, usually within a foot of the ground. They take young fans, not a 3-foot scape. Hardware cloth at the soil line stops rabbits; a deer steps over it. If only the lowest leaves are gone and the buds still open, start at how to keep rabbits out of the garden. Clemson HGIC 2102: slugs feed on tender young growth in early spring and leave slime. Flower thrips scar buds. Daylily leaf streak (Aureobasidium microstictum) makes yellow streaks on intact leaves — that is a fungus, not a bite. Do not cage a disease.
Where the ratings disagree
Rutgers built its C rating from nursery people, NJAES staff, and Master Gardeners in northern New Jersey — suburbs where a C plant still needs fencing or repellents. Iowa State keeps the same “occasionally” bucket. Cornell’s Westchester gardeners filed Hemerocallis as often eaten. UGA Fulton County Master Gardeners (June 13, 2025) are blunt: daylilies are not deer resistant. UGA Bulletin 1424’s cultivar table still prints “drought and deer tolerant” next to a few named hybrids. Circular 985, the deer paper, does not. Trust the browse list.
Read the split as pressure, not chemistry. Daylilies have no lycorine like daffodils, no lavender-level scent, and no fuzzy leaf like bedding geraniums. A well-fed rural deer may skip the foliage and still take every bud. A suburban doe with fawns will not skip either. If your street already loses hostas and hydrangeas, treat daylilies as unprotected food.
What works
Physical exclusion is the only near-certain fix where Rutgers would call them a C plant. Minnesota Extension’s woven-wire standard for a whole bed is at least 8 feet. A 4-foot decorative fence around a 3-foot scape is theater — how high a deer can jump is why. For a short row of named cultivars, a welded-wire cylinder taller than the bloom, staked so a deer cannot crush it, is enough. Put the bed against the house, inside a fenced vegetable garden, or in large pots on a deck deer will not climb.
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Start egg-based or hot-pepper repellents before the first fan, rotate formulas, and respray after rain — and again when scapes rise, because the buds are the meal. Once a bed is a known dusk stop, spray alone rarely holds. Which bottles last is on organic deer repellent. Whole-yard tactics live on how to keep deer out of garden beds.
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What does not work
A tag that says “deer-resistant daylily,” including Stella de Oro sold that way. No sourced university list splits the genus by cultivar. Surrounding daylilies with sage or lavender helps only if the daylilies are also caged. Dryer sheets, soap, hair, and a single motion light buy days. Feeding the herd to “distract” them trains them to your property — what to feed backyard deer is the page that says don’t. Planting more orange ditch lily because “it always comes back” trades a deer problem for an invasive one.
Three substitutes that already earn their keep
If you want summer color without feeding the herd, swap the exposed row rather than spraying it all summer:
- Daffodils — lycorine makes them one of the few bulbs deer skip. They will not replace a July daylily, but they hold a sunny border without cages. See deer-resistant bulbs.
- Lavender — strong scent, full sun, and it sits on every serious “rarely eaten” list, including Minnesota’s. Same six-hour light a daylily wants.
- Peonies — Iowa State: rarely damaged perennial. Big May–June bloom deer usually skip for taste and sap. They will not rebloom like Stella. They will still be standing in July.
Zonal geraniums, salvia, and marigolds cover the annual slot. Longer menus: what flowers deer do not eat and deer-resistant perennials.
Related plants in the same yard — and cats
If deer found the daylilies, they have already walked the rest of the sunny strip. Hostas go first in shade. Tulips go in spring. Roses take new growth on the same circuit. Protect or replace the whole border; do not cage one clump and leave a hosta bed next to it. Layout: how to keep deer from eating plants.
One garden fact that is not about deer: ASPCA Animal Poison Control lists Hemerocallis as toxic to cats (vomiting, lethargy, kidney failure, death) and non-toxic to dogs. The FDA groups true lilies and daylilies: stem, leaf, flower, pollen, and even vase water can kill a cat. That does not make the plant deer-proof. It does mean a browsed clump on a patio with an outdoor cat is a vet problem, not just an ugly border.
FAQ
Will daylilies grow back after deer eat them?
Usually, yes, if the crown is intact. Minnesota: they are vigorous, and divisions with two or three fans reset a clump. A browsed scape is this year’s flowers gone. Michigan Ask Extension: the plants look fine, you lost the blooms, they will come back next year — and so will the deer.
Are Stella de Oro or other rebloomers deer-proof?
No sourced university list says so. More buds per scape, and a second flush, means more nights the herd has something to take. Protect the plant, not the cultivar name.
Do deer eat daylily roots?
Not as a habit. The crown sits about an inch down. Missing plants, tunnels, and a crown that lifts out rotten are voles, heaving, or rot. Orange ditch lily spreads by those roots into the next bed — that is the plant moving, not a deer digging dinner.
Can I skip a fence if I only have “a few” deer?
A few deer is how the habit starts. Light pressure may cost you buds and still leave a decent fan. Once one animal adds your bed to its dusk loop, the raids continue. If you already see pellets in the mulch, treat it as a C-list plant. True lilies next to them are worse — Iowa State files Lilium as frequently damaged.
Sources
- Rutgers NJAES — Landscape plants rated by deer resistance (Daylily, Occasionally Severely Damaged — C)
- Iowa State Extension — Susceptibility of plants to deer damage (last reviewed July 2022; sources Rutgers, Cornell, Michigan State)
- Cornell Cooperative Extension Westchester deer-resistance survey (Hemerocallis often eaten)
- Cornell Cooperative Extension of Oneida County — Deer-resistant plants (daylily under frequently damaged herbaceous plants)
- UGA Extension Circular 985 — Deer-tolerant ornamental plants
- UGA Fulton County — Darling daylilies (June 13, 2025)
- University of Minnesota Extension — Daylilies
- University of Minnesota Extension — White-tailed deer damage
- Michigan State Extension — Orange daylily (Hemerocallis fulva)
- Ask Extension #803450 — Tiger lilies died suddenly (Wayne County, Michigan)
- Clemson HGIC 2102 — Daylily diseases and insect pests (updated Oct. 3, 2024)
- Conover et al. — Susceptibility of spring-flowering garden plants to herbivory by mule deer (2018)
- ASPCA — Day lilies (Hemerocallis spp.)
- FDA — Lovely lilies and curious cats
This is a child of the deer-proof garden guide. Wild browse, not landscape fans, is on what deer eat.
