Wildlife Shrubs

[Fish]

I thought with all the interest in wildlife shrubs that I would start a thread and highlight a number of them. I love shrubs and have planted hundreds. Hopefully, this can be a valuable resource for anyone looking to put in a new planting, or screen their property with shrubs. And we can put it right here in one spot.
I haven't collected a lot of pics to date of my shrubs, but I have a few to get started. I have not planted a fraction of the wildlife shrubs available, so I encourage everyone to share their shrub pics and stories.
In my opinion, native shrubs are that important.
I'm thinking this thread is more of a "real world" shrub introduction and not so much of an information dump. When I started my plantings, I know a few pics of someone else's planting would have been nice.


I took a few pics from a double row planting going into its fourth growing season. I tried to clean it up this winter. These plants have been in some competition the last couple of years.
This hazelnut is not growing well. I cleaned up around it.




This hazelnut is growing just feet away and is doing fine....





A "sparse" silky dogwood. Silky dogwoods will produce loads of berries in summer. It's a great shrub, especially for low areas.



This shrub is quickly becoming a favorite. Ninebark! You can even find this one in nurseries where the purple leaved varieties are sold. The common ninebark is all green though. Produces a tiny seed without a berry. But of all the shrubs I've planted in this double row, ninebark was planted a year later filling in where others had died and it has completely outgrown all other varieties. Ninebark leafs out early, and holds leaves late in the fall. A great screening shrub.




Ninebark flowering..... Around May 1 here.





Elderberry comes up freely all over my low ground. Luke and I stumbled on this patch in the bottoms in early April. Elderberry begins growth very early in the spring and seems impervious to frost or freezes for that matter. (Note: Luke is wearing shorts in these bottoms at one of the only times that's possible. A week in early April. and then it's dicey.) Elderberry can do fine in partial shade.



I will continue to build on the portfolio of wildlife shrubs, showing where they are succeeding and not.... Showing them at different stages of growth and seasons so that you can make an informed decision on what shrubs to plant on your property. Feel free to post your shrub pics!

 

[Chainsaw]

Excellent thread idea Fish. I look forward to both participating and following it. I'm with you 1,000%; shrubs are that important.

 

[Fish]

Excellent thread idea Fish. I look forward to both participating and following it. I'm with you 1,000%; shrubs are that important.

Thank you, Chainsaw! Trees have their place, of course, but imagine 10 acres of mature native shrubs. Now that would be a whitetail mecca.

 

[buckdeer1]

My favorite are sandhill plum and fragrant sumac,I have planted around 5000 sandhills,hopefully I can beat the birds to some this year

 

[Fish]

My favorite are sandhill plum and fragrant sumac,I have planted around 5000 sandhills,hopefully I can beat the birds to some this year

5000? You must be feeding a lot of birds. . Are these all planted in one location?

 

[buckdeer1]

Not all in same patch,I have around 8 or nine patches and they are loaded this year

 

[Charlieyca]

Have you noticed much browse on the hazelnuts? I planted about 20 this spring and tubes them, but was planning to remove tubes this coming spring and let them bush out.

 

[KJS - ND]

At my place, browse on hazelnuts is very minimal - deer prefer chockcherry/dogwood/willows/plums. I tubed my hazelnuts the first year and removed following and haven't had any issues (where is some wood to knock on?).

 

[Charlieyca]

Thats what I was hoping to hear! How long do you leave your chokecherry and dogwoods tubed?

 

[KJS - ND]

Chockcherry's were already present - I didn't plant them - they are spreading on their own faster than the deer can keep up w/ them. The dogwoods I tubed for 2 years and them caged them last year I believe. I took the cages off this spring and they are now on their own. They seemed to be OK in the tube over the winter - some shrubs (plums specifically) seem to grow too much in the summer and not harden off like they should before winter (this is in North Dakota - so probably different for others). Plums seem to die back if left in the tube over winter and had to start again from the roots. I planted some Elderberry last year and that looked like it might be the same thing so I pulled the tubes in September and caged them - they all look good now and the cages will stay on this year and get removed next spring and they'll have to survive on their own then.

 

[Fish]

Have you noticed much browse on the hazelnuts? I planted about 20 this spring and tubes them, but was planning to remove tubes this coming spring and let them bush out.

Ive heard they love hazelnut shrubs, but mine are planted along the neighbors drive and arent subject to heavy browsing.
They love my silky and gray dogwoods. Seems that areas are different in what they will eat.

 

[Fish]

Chockcherry's were already present - I didn't plant them - they are spreading on their own faster than the deer can keep up w/ them. The dogwoods I tubed for 2 years and them caged them last year I believe. I took the cages off this spring and they are now on their own. They seemed to be OK in the tube over the winter - some shrubs (plums specifically) seem to grow too much in the summer and not harden off like they should before winter (this is in North Dakota - so probably different for others). Plums seem to die back if left in the tube over winter and had to start again from the roots. I planted some Elderberry last year and that looked like it might be the same thing so I pulled the tubes in September and caged them - they all look good now and the cages will stay on this year and get removed next spring and they'll have to survive on their own then.

I see a lot of elderberry coming back from the roots each spring.

 

[Native Hunter]

Ive heard they love hazelnut shrubs, but mine are planted along the neighbors drive and arent subject to heavy browsing.
They love my silky and gray dogwoods. Seems that areas are different in what they will eat.

Last year I planted some European Hazelnuts at my farm that I started by layering the ones at home in my yard. I protected them with cages just like I would apple trees. They grew well and were over 5 feet tall this spring with lots of branching.

I was setting some apple trees this spring and decided to rob the cages from the hazels to use on the apples. Since that time those bushes have been eaten badly. I think they will live, but they have really been worked over. I've never seen a native hazel browsed.

 

[Brushpile]

I suspect that deer seek nourishment requirements dependant on soil. My Poke Weed is never touched, while it's preferred browse in other areas. From one area to another deer have preferences, that seem to make sense only to deer. Hazelnut is a terrific shrub for deer, depending on location.

 

[Fish]

Last year I planted some European Hazelnuts at my farm that I started by layering the ones at home in my yard. I protected them with cages just like I would apple trees. They grew well and were over 5 feet tall this spring with lots of branching.

I was setting some apple trees this spring and decided to rob the cages from the hazels to use on the apples. Since that time those bushes have been eaten badly. I think they will live, but they have really been worked over. I've never seen a native hazel browsed.

Thanks, Native. Has anyone here seen browsing on a native Hazelnut? Anyone?

I suspect that deer seek nourishment requirements dependant on soil. My Poke Weed is never touched, while it's preferred browse in other areas. From one area to another deer have preferences, that seem to make sense only to deer. Hazelnut is a terrific shrub for deer, depending on location.

I figured if anyone had a Hazelnut shrub browsed it would be you, Brush. What kind of a deer eats poke weed?

 

[Fish]

Years ago, I planted a few silky dogwoods along my driveway. Pretty much because I felt like it and the price was right coming from the state nursery. In fact, I highly recommend landscaping with native shrubs. They aren't hard to grow at all. If they were, they'd never make it out on their own.
Here's what they look like now. I've cut them nearly to the ground twice over the past ten years. They just keep coming back, thankfully.








On the years I don't cut them back, they produce a lot of berries and well, then seed. This driveway gravel must be a heckuva nice seed bed for them.





I've plucked lots of them out and potted them for planting out on the property. Looks like I missed this one last year.





And the birds will do a fair job of spreading them around. I found this one growing next to the old shed in nearly complete shade.





These are silky and gray dogwoods (mostly silky) growing between the roadway and the pines. They make a great summer screen and incredible habitat for birds/rabbits.





The shrub on the left is a Northern Bayberry. The shrub on the right is a silky.





I like Northern Bayberry because it holds its leaves very late into the year and grows really thick. You don't see it offered much anymore though. The berries (actually the whole plant) smell incredible and are actually used in making candles because of their waxy coating. Northern Bayberry is considered starvation food for wildlife, which means it has little value there.





Sunshine was beating in on this Northern Bayberry when I snapped the pic, but you get a sense for how full they can get. And the leaves weren't grown out all the way either. There's a road back there. Can you see it?

 

[TrampledbyTurtles]

TTT

Anyone care to share their top 5 shrub species for deer.

In terms of palitability/consumption, then habitat structure.

This is a new area for myself
Looking to increase the perennial forage options I have present.

Know a lot of u folks r from further south, so I'll do some digging on location compatabilty.

Have American plum- gets hammered, apricot, nanny berry - never gets touched.An a few others.
Just planted 5 hazelnuts with cages, will see how they do in a few yrs.

Thz

 

[Goldentriangle]

It seems that even going back to the old forum, ninebark is almost always listed at the top of everyone's shrub lists. I have not worked with any shrubs yet but I think I will start with ninebark. Do you have much browsing on yours? I believe in Geo's old Hickory Ridge threads, he talked about deer murdering his but I could be mistaken.
Love the Cards shirt! Go Birds!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[KJS - ND]

1) Plum
2) Elderberry
3) Hazelnut
4) Red Dogwood Osier
5) Ninebark

I've been planting small pockets of cover the last couple years - usually consisting of 10-12 Eastern Red Cedar plugs and 12-14 shrubs - usually the one's noted above (RDO only if in a wetter area) and mix in a few other honeysuckle, currents, false indigo, cranberry, etc. All about variety. Hopefully in 10 years if 1/2 of the trees make it to maturity, I'll have some nice little bedding areas where the deer won't have to move much to get a snack.

Look for shrubs you think will benefit the deer, but that you don't see around your property currently.

I have a ton of native chokecherries and some hawthorns, a few plums, but really none of the others noted above.

 

[Charlieyca]

Growing up I was never concerned with deer food besides acorns and surely didnt realize how much of their food came from browsing what we would call weeds. I am not as concerned with what plants deer might favor, but instead provide biodiversity of shrubs to make sure they have plenty of options and to hedge my bets in regards to drought or flooding. I planted 5 each of 10 different plants and will plant 10 species more next year. I hope to be able to judge survivability of the plant, cause if it dies its no good to deer, and browse level. I hope to find plant that match my climate and have moderate browse, so Im not spending so much time protecting them.

So in essence, my advice is to plant a variety of shrubs adapted to your soil and climate that have a variety of reported deer use (high medium and low browse preference..