Slug-Proof Plants (or Nearly): What They Won’t Munch

Tough, tasty-looking, and (somehow) untouched. A personal list of slug-resistant favourites from my own garden.

I’ve had more questions about slugs and snails than probably every other subject combined. Hosepipe bans, compost drama, aphids and caterpillars don’t even come close. And fair enough too! Those slimy soil dwellers can wreak havoc and reduce a grown human to a sobbing mess.

You know the scene. A gorgeous young shoot emerges, dewy and full of promise. You turn your back for five minutes, and it’s gone. Reduced to a sad, frilly nub. No sign of the culprit. Just a glistening trail of audacity, like a garden smash and grab.

It could be new shoots. It could be a prized plant you’ve just this moment bought from the garden centre. You leave it on the patio overnight, ready for planting the next day, and then… horror. The leaves look like they’ve been flayed with a cat o’ nine tails.

Slugs and snails are the bane of so many gardens, especially in spring and early summer (and any time there’s a healthy dollop of rain). They arrive like sneaky little salad thieves and strip your prized plants overnight, leaving heartbreak and shredded foliage in their wake. Some years are worse than others, but let’s be honest… they’re never entirely absent.

Now, I’m not here to promise miracles. Even the most defiant plant might fall victim to a particularly bold mollusc, especially if you’ve just served up a buffet of soft new growth or your plants are stressed. But in my experience, some plants are genuinely unappetising. Unchewable. Barely glanced at by those malevolent molluscs.

So instead of relying on regurgitated lists from the internet, I’ve spent the summer observing plants in my own garden. These are the ones that stand their ground. The unsung heroes of the border.

Ferns, woody shrubs, trees (particularly conifers), and grasses are generally left well alone. Too tough, too tall, or just not tasty enough. Slugs also tend to steer clear of anything with hard, leathery leaves, strong herbal flavours packed with volatile oils, or fluffy, fuzzy or scratchy textures.

Then there are those plants that, for whatever unfathomable reason, slugs and snails simply ignore. So let’s give these stunningly defiant plants a moment in the spotlight!

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Borders filled with slug-proof nepeta, salvia, hardy geraniums, perovskia, geums, alchemilla, penstemons, peony, and roses

Slug-Resistant Plants Worth Their Weight in (Uneaten) Leaves

(From my own garden - tested in the field, not just theory.)

Perennials

1. Geranium (the hardy kind, not the bedding pelargoniums)
   Absolute tanks. They spread like gossip and slugs seem wholly uninterested. The foliage is tough, the flowers are charming, and you’ll barely find a nibble.

2. Epimedium
   Delicate-looking, but it’s all a ruse. These plants are practically invisible to slugs and bring great foliage interest in shade.

3. Alchemilla mollis
   Those ruffled velvety leaves collect morning dew like tiny chalices. Beautiful to us, but about as appealing to a slug as a cactus duvet.

4. Astrantia
   Elegant blooms, finely cut leaves, and barely a mark on them. Practically ornamental steel.

5. Aquilegia
   Soft, floaty, and magical. Mostly left alone. They seed around like happy little anarchists and rarely show damage.

6. Brunnera macrophylla
   Textured, slightly hairy leaves (which slugs hate) and delicate forget-me-not flowers in spring. Occasionally a little nibble on old leaves, but not serious.

7. Pulmonaria
   Spotty leaves, early flowers for pollinators, and a real backbone plant. Slugs don’t seem to like the scratchy texture. A win for us.

8. Agapanthus
   Tough, strappy foliage that slugs simply ignore. The flowers are a summer showstopper and, frankly, a well-earned reward for not being eaten.

9. Gaura (now Oenothera lindheimeri)
   Whippy, wiry stems and fine foliage. Slugs don’t seem interested. A bit wild and wonderful, and flowers for ages.

10. Geum
    Lovely clump-forming perennials with slightly hairy leaves and cheerful blooms. Not a slug favourite at all, and new cultivars like ‘Totally Tangerine’ are long-flowering and fuss-free.

11. Salvia nemorosa
    Rough, aromatic foliage puts slugs right off. The bees love the flowers, and the molluscs give them a wide berth.

12. Euphorbia
    I love the zingy chartreuse blooms, but they’re not to everyone’s taste, but definitely not to a slug’s. Milky sap, leathery leaves, and tough stems keep them safe from most nibbles.

13. Japanese Anemones (Anemone x hybrida)
    Elegant and late to rise, these perennials sail through summer without a single nibble. Possibly too wiry, too upright, or just too confident to bother with.

14. Erigeron karvinskianus
    Low, frothy daisy flowers, and no sign of slime. It self-seeds like a dream in cracks and crevices, and slugs don't seem to notice.

15. Thalictrum aquilegiifolium
    Delicate, airy flowers and finely cut leaves. Despite looking like the kind of thing slugs would love, they are almost always left untouched.

16. Lavandula (Lavender)
    Technically a subshrub but we’ll lump in it here with the perennials. Soft and scented for us, but full of essential oils that put slugs right off their supper.

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Tried, Tested, and (Mostly) Untouched

These are the ones that might not always make those top ten lists, but they’ve earned their stripes. Many of them I grow here (in bold) with great success, while others are widely recommended from fellow gardeners and sources across the web. If you're looking to plant with pests in mind, this is a solid place to start.

Acanthus mollis, Ajuga reptans, Astilbe, Campanula, Crocosmia, Cyclamen, Foeniculum vulgare (fennel), Fuchsias, Heuchera, Hellebore, Paeonia lactiflora (peony), Penstemon, Perovskia, Phlox paniculata, Scabiosa, Sedum, Sisyrinchium, Solidago (golden rod), Stachys, Verbascum species (mullein).

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Ferns

Dryopteris filix-mas (male fern)
If a slug has ever eaten one of these in my garden, I’ll eat my filthiest hat. Ferns are some of the most reliably slug-resistant plants you can grow, which is remarkable considering they often live in the same shady, moist corners that slugs adore.

It comes down to texture. Fern foliage looks fine and lacy, but it tends to be thick, sometimes hairy, and generally unappetising. Dryopteris, in particular, has a leathery quality that slugs seem to avoid entirely.

They’re also low-maintenance, resilient in shade, and tolerant of dry spells once established. In other words, they ask for very little and offer a lot, including the peace of mind that no mollusc is going to ruin the look.

Other Notable Ferns

1. Polystichum setiferum (soft shield fern)
   Delicately divided fronds with a soft, almost feathery look. Despite its lushness, I’ve never seen it nibbled. It’s evergreen too, which is a nice bonus for winter structure.

2. Athyrium niponicum (Japanese painted fern)
   A real showstopper, with silver, purple, and green tones. You’d think something that pretty would be gobbled instantly, but no, it seems to glide under the slug radar.

3. Asplenium scolopendrium (hart's tongue fern)
   Broad, glossy, tongue-like leaves that look like they’d be on the slug’s buffet, but oddly, they’re not. Brilliant for damp shade and one of the easiest to grow.

4. Dryopteris erythrosora (autumn fern)
   Young fronds emerge coppery-pink and mature to deep green. Tough and striking, and apparently quite unpalatable.

5. Blechnum spicant (hard fern)
   Evergreen and architectural, with upright fertile fronds and low, spreading sterile ones. Very tough, very reliable, and again, untouched.

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Annuals and Biennials

Calendula
Cheerful, low-effort, and surprisingly untroubled once they get going. Young seedlings need watching, but established plants are rarely touched. I sow mine under cover, raise them in modules, and plant out when they’re growing strongly. If your garden is infested with slugs, grow them on in 9 cm pots and plant out when they’re really motoring.

Digitalis (foxglove)
A shady garden superstar. Slugs take one sniff and back away slowly. Possibly poisonous, definitely unfashionable with gastropods. Scruffy old leaves at the base may be nibbled, but nothing serious.

Nicotiana
Those velvety, musky leaves? Seemingly a total turn-off. Bees and moths love them, slugs don’t. That’s a solid win. However, like with foxgloves, you may find decaying leaves are nibbled, so just prune these out once they begin to yellow.

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Herbs (Slug-Free and Useful!)

Thyme, rosemary, oregano, sage. Strong-smelling, rough-leaved, and not on the menu. I’ve never seen a slug having a munch on any of these.

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Plants Slugs & Snails Love (aka: The Mollusc Menu)

You know the ones. You plant them with joy, full of hope and glossy-leafed promise… and within hours, they’re riddled like a colander. If you don’t protect these beauties, they’ll be reduced to stumps faster than you can say “beer trap.”

1. Hostas
   No surprises here. But oh, the heartbreak. Especially the large-leaved, soft-textured types. Unless grown in pots, raised off the ground, with regular inspections and full military-grade slug patrols, they are potentially doomed. The blue-leaved varieties are usually tougher (like ‘Halcyon’ and ‘Blue Mouse Ears’) but still need watching.

2. Delphiniums
   It’s almost comical. The second those juicy shoots emerge, slugs seemingly parachute in from neighbouring postcodes. Despite being packed with toxins that could floor a hippo, delphiniums are apparently delicious. If you want delphs, be prepared to go on high alert from Day One. Cloche young plants, or feed and water them straight away to get them growing strongly. Either plant them out when they’re well established or just keep them in pots and guard them like precious jewels.

3. Lupins

   Another banquet item. Not only are the leaves irresistible, the flower stems seem to be slug catnip too. They rarely make it to maturity without a few war wounds. In my Cottage Garden, they were frequently decimated. However, in the dry and sunny Flower Garden (which has far less cover in spring), they grow strongly and are quickly out of reach.

4. Dahlias (especially new growth)

   The tubers may survive anything, but that tender new growth? Basically slug caviar. Keep an eye on young plants and tuck them in safely at night. Snails will go after mature foliage too.

5. Cosmos

   Young cosmos are extremely nibble-able. Once they bulk up, they’re usually fine, but early on they’re easy pickings.

6. Marigolds (Tagetes)

   Supposedly pungent and unappealing, and yet I’ve seen them absolutely obliterated in my veg beds, gnawed to the ground. Despite their renown as the perfect companion plant (meant to repel pests, no less), slugs seem to view them as a soft, citrus-scented canapé. Clearly our local slugs haven’t read the same books.

Slugs may also eat the young emerging foliage of Sanguisorba, Persicaria, Sunflowers, Zinnias, and Eryngium, though in many cases, once the plants are established, the threat lessens considerably.

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Final Thoughts

Slugs and snails are inevitable. They’re part of the garden, just like blackfly, bindweed, and a neighbour mowing at 7 a.m. on a Saturday. But that doesn’t mean they get free rein. Choose the right plants, and you’re already halfway there. A little nibble here and there is fine, just plant wisely and don’t give them the run of the place. 🌿

P.S. Want to know how I actually keep them in check? Here’s my no-pellets, no-panic slug control guide 👇