Deer Resistant Potato Vines

Plants in the Nightshade Family

• Many plants in the nightshade family (Solanum spp.), which includes deadly nightshade, are toxic to livestock and other animals. Most nightshades are annuals that grow to 1 or 2 feet tall, with egg-shaped leaves and small clusters of five-lobed, 1/4-inch flowers. Many produce smooth, many-seeded green berries that turn black when mature. Eggplants and potatoes are in the same plant family -- tomatoes are also related -- but are not toxic. Various flowering vines in the nightshade family, very attractive landscaping plants, don't usually appeal to deer. Even regular potato vines -- the kinds that grow above ground when you're growing russets, for example -- are generally unappealing to deer.

Flowering Potato Vine

• Not quite a climbing vine, the fragrant flowering potato vine (Solanum jasminoides) will scramble across the ground but can also be trained onto fences and walls. This fast-growing, white-flowering vine is evergreen in mild climates and stems can grow to 25 feet. It thrives in almost any soil and full sun but will tolerate shade. Vines will flower until frost. Deer don't like flowering potato vine, but hummingbirds and butterflies do. A variegated type, Variegata, produces blue-tinged white flowers.

Paraguay Nightshade

• The fragrant, rich violet-blue flowers of the Royal Robe cultivar of Paraguay nightshade (Solanum rantonnetii "Royal Robe") are its signature feature. This fast-growing, deer-resistant evergreen shrub with arching stems can grow to 8 feet, making it suitable for hedges, at least in mild climates. A much smaller variegated cultivar, "MonRita," features variegated green, white and gold foliage and grows to about 4 feet -- perfect for a patio container plant.

Giant Potato Creeper

• Also called divorce vine and Costa Rican nightshade, giant potato creeper (Solanum wendlandii) is a semi-evergreen vine from Costa Rica with 1 1/2-inch flowers that start out deep purple then fade to lavender and finally white. Like other flowering vines in the potato family, this one blooms vigorously during warmer months. In tropical or semi-tropical climates it remains evergreen, but in California it is a deciduous vine hardy to 25 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Plants do well in partial shade to full sun.