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Are You Being Driven Mad by Slugs and Snails? Here are 7 Plants They Hate
Regardless of their slow, laboured pace; slugs and snails have a terrible habit of turning up unexpectedly (and certainly without invitation) in gardens, munching on plants and leaving nothing but destruction in their wake.
The job of searching through the garden and picking up these slimy invaders is not one of the great, rewarding gardening tasks, and is one we’d all rather avoid. So rather than spritzing your plants with slug and snail killing formulas, why not introduce plants which the little blighters hate? This is an elegant solution which means you can reduce the number of slimy visits your garden receives without having to harm any little lives.
Slugs and snails may seem like greedy little leaf-chompers, chewing up all in their path; but there are certain plants they’ll turn their noses up at – most notably, thick-leaf plants which prove hard for them to chew their way through, and highly fragrant additions to the garden.
And to make things even easier, we’ve compiled a list of seven plants that slugs and snails absolutely hate – plant these and your garden will be left in peace.
Ferns
Low maintenance, incredibly hardy and well down the slug and snail menu; ferns make an attractive, hassle-free addition to the garden. It’s the thick and difficult-to-chew leaves of ferns which put off slug and snail visitors from having a good munch.
Thriving in moist, well-drained spots with a decent amount of shade; ferns rarely require feeding when planted in the open ground, perfect for those who can’t commit a great deal of time to their gardening. Ferns make great ground-covering and background plants, wonderful if you’ve got a big garden and plenty of space to fill with attractive, slug-repellent plants.
Hydrangeas
The delicate pink, white and blue flowers of the hydrangea plant may look beautiful to you or I, but they are not a welcome sight for our slug and snail friends. Creating a beautiful barrier against slimy pests, hydrangeas are a wonderful addition to the back garden – and their ability to change colour in different soils adds another exciting element to planting these shrubs.
Like ferns, hydrangeas will flourish in moist, yet well-drained garden spots with a degree of shade. When planting hydrangeas, be careful about picking east-facing sites, as the cold winds could damage young spring growth.
Euphorbias
The milky sap of euphorbias possesses a bitter taste which slugs and snails simply can’t stomach. They’ll avoid these plants, veering towards sweeter-tasting treats and young plants. Euphorbias are a hardy family of plants which really come into their own when the temperature dips and the less strong-willed plants die out and go into hiding.
Even as the surrounding plants turn to mush, euphorbias will continue to stand upright, projecting dark green tones over your winter garden. All whilst keeping slugs and snails at bay.
Lavender
Slugs and snails are also known to have a dislike for plants with a strong fragrance, and lavender definitely gets up their collective nose. Whilst many humans adore the rich smell of lavender in their garden and around their home, garden-dwelling molluscs will be turned off. Strategically placing lavender in the garden could help protect other plants from slug and snail attacks, creating a whiffy barrier against the gastropods.
Rosemary
Similarly, rosemary’s fragrance can be off-putting for slugs and snails trying to slime their way into the garden. Despite its use in human aromatherapy for centuries, rosemary offers none of the same benefits to slugs and snails – warding them away from the garden.
Like many of the plants in this list, rosemary is simple to grow, flowering throughout the year. Incredibly hardy, a rosemary bush can be with you for up 20 years, offering two decades of slug-free living.
Geraniums
Another thing which will quickly turn the stomachs of slugs and snails is a plant with hairy stems and leaves. So grow some hairy geraniums in your garden if you’re looking for a kind way to dissuade slugs and snails from visiting your beautiful outdoor space. The hairy build of the geraniums make them incredibly uncomfortable for slugs to travel across and munch on.
With more than 300 species, it’s super easy to find the geraniums which will complement your back garden. Super hardy, geraniums are also great ground-covering plants which will help to suppress that other hated back garden pest, the weed.
Japanese Anemone
Although establishing Japanese anemones in the garden can sometimes be quite difficult thanks to their brittle roots; once they’re in, they tend to spread like wildfire and are really quite beautiful. Another plant which will help rid your garden of a weed infestation and deter slugs and snails; a Japanese anemone patch is a great pest-busting solution.
For a great range of bulbs and seeds, head over to our dedicated section here. Alternatively, visit us in one of our three stores for more information about slug and snail-repellent flowers or anything garden related.
Thanks for the info.
Will try next season.
Muni. Glasgow
The info is wrong, slugs absolutely feasted on my hydrangeas!
very helpful – had quite a lot of slugs this year eating polyanthus and pansys leaves, slug pellets didn’t work as well as before. Have just placed holly leaves around these plants to try to deter slugs.
Did this work just put some begonias in worried they won’t be there in the morning
My young begonias disappeared overnight after the snails had a feast
and whatever you do dont plant Hostas they adore them .I have them in a border in my garden they come up so beautifully and within a week they are decimated .Have had them there for years but decided just to leave them as a snail feeding area as I like snails .maybe planying Hostas in a pot would be ok
I have amazing hosta in pots up oss the ground on wrought-iron stands
Holly leaves are working for me, I put them round my lupin and other plants. Very pleased.
I have a world record issue and have studied a great deal. The pellets do not detract snails, thry actually attract them when they get moisture from the soil or area they are spread. The copper works and I actually went so far as to create an electric copper with batteries and a wire to shock them. The plain copper works too. Diatomaceous earth is a type of poison that doesn’t hurt the plant but has a lot of hate. I mixed it with water and sprayed it around the base. It’s worked too but it looked bad.
How has the holly leaves worked so far? I know i cant stand to be pricked by them
Have you tried a beer trap, I’ve been using them all last year and started again this year. It’s about 50 slugs a time you can’t believe the death trap they become. I dig a hole for the ramakin then place a little beer in the pot empty each day and repeat you’ll soon see less
Try the copper tape round your pots, I’ve found that works for me. I don’t use pellets in case the birds get them and I have found beer traps a waste of time.
If in the ground then hopefully your holly leaves will work. Good idea that one.
They also do not like fuchsia, antirrihnum (snapdragons) and begonias
Sorry to disappoint you Andy Colley, but they certainly didn’t mind chomping through my fuschia bush last year, maybe their tastes have changed lol.
Actually snails/slugs LOVE Hydrangeas, I had two and slugs decimated them.
Hmm, the slugs here quite happily ate my hydrangea! Nice new plant – gone in a few days!
But I’ll try some of the others as they have eaten a patch of poppies and a planter of lobelia – sigh…
Very sorry to inform you that slugs devour my back garden hydrangeas every year. So this year I tried a row of French lavender in front of them and every evening I find the lavender bushes full of slugs. They actually seem to love it so much they are less interested in the hydrangeas this year!
Slugs decimated Japanese anemones in my garden which is next to a field so I have a HUGE problem with slugs. Mine eat ones on the ‘don’t eat’ lists and I have tried every form of protection except toxic chemical ones. Slugs don’t like roses, penstemons, hebes, agapanthus, hellebores, lychnis. Fuchsia are great I have tons.
Please, please, however annoying slugs are (I’m inundated with them too) don’t ever use slug pellets. They are so fatal if a poor passing bird sees a dying slug and eats it, or a mouse, snake, hedgehog, they’re the next victim too.
When I plant out my young Delphiniums I place a handful of small grit all around the plant there appears to keep them off
What kind of begonias do slugs not like?
I have slugs all over my hydrangeas. 😕
Amazed to read hydrangeas are not popular with slugs/snails. The little pests are demolishing my four new bushes with a vengeance. Put pellets down now adding three bags of bark chippings.
I have planted all plants that slugs hate and it works flowering well this year. I also used nematodes just as extra insurance. I put a wooden border rail as edging slugs are obviously dettered.
X slugs have just eaten my beans, is it too late grow more? And how do yous stop slugs and snails
I use collars made from plastic juice bottles with bottom and top cut off, spread a half inch wide thin layer of vaseline about 4 inches up from the ground all around the bottle. I put that around the groups of seeds I have planted. Slugs won’t climb into this collar. When the beans start germinating I go out at night and look for any slugs that may have been in place before I set it all up, and remove them. I have so many slugs, this is the only way I have been able to grow beans. Amazingly, the vaseline stays on the collars even in the hot weather so I don’t think this is interfering with my organic gardening. I save the collars and re-use them each year.
Please don’t use slug pellets, you are also killing the animals that fees on slugs I.e song thrushes, hedgehogs, newts, toads and frogs
They’re loving my newly planted hydrangea. Ugh.
Baloney on rosemary. They’re all over mine.
Slugs and snails even climbed on my Germanium and left their slimy marks. They also gathered around of a small pot of baby lavenders. Ate all my spring greens, kolarobi and beetroot plants. Just crating a havoc.
The blue palets are not winning.
I’m just too frustrated!!!
Hit them with the salt shaker….they don’t like salt either. They just shrivel up right away!!
If I introduce these anti-slug/snail plants in and amongst my other tempting plants will not the molluscs simply just slither around these guardian plants to reach the ones they are after?
Eggshell, salt works also. Great info I will try some lavender.
They love my hydrangea leaves! 🙁
Not true about hydrangeas alas.
Thanks that was educational information .
I’ve tried all of these and found the slimy creatures hibernating and munching through geranium leaves! I will have another go.
I go on a slug hunt at night, and I catch them in the act. I also use bread traps …it works for me. Just get the cheapest bear in store
I’ve tried all of these and found the slimy creatures hibernating and munching through geranium leaves! I will have another go.
Snails and slugs are eating most of the plants in our garden. How to control them without using chemicals
I find that snails eat my ferns (Maidenhair Fern), so not sure that one is right.
Can hydrangeas be grown in pots please?
Yes hydrangeas can be grown in pots we have many of them growing in our garden in a variety of colours just make sure that your pot is big enough
Yes they can, I have one in a large pot and it’s vey happy
Yes they can but as the plant gets bigger so will the pot have to be changed over the years . Very easy to grow and Curtis take so easily and start another plant off .
I have a hydrangea in a pot and it’s doing well
Yes. I have taken cuttings and they are flourishing in pots after 3 to 4 years.
Yes perfectly well, although they won’t grow as large as if planted in the ground.
I have to grow mine in pots as I have not got the soil for them. Your soil is either Acid or Alkaline or could be neutral to grow them sucessfully you need to get a soil testing kit cheaply from your garden centre. If you do try to put them in the garden you have to get granules to put into pots /garden otherwise you may buy them with blue flowers but unless you treat them with granules again from garden centre you will only have pink ones. If you do put them in pots & this applies to Rhodedendrons & Azaleas & Camelias you must use erecaeus compost.
Yes but use ericaceous compost and be sure the pot is quite large . Refresh compost every year and transfer to larger pot if necessary.
If you use an acid compost and a very large pot yes
Yes my hydrangea has been happy in a biggish pot for 8 years
Yes indeed. I’ve found they do better in pots.
Yes definitely I have them in large stone pots at my front door the pots are covered in gravel there for no slugs or snails
But I have many plants in glazed shiny pots and plastic pots and the little beasts seem to love them
I am sure at night they dance around the edges then dive over the ring of eggshells and have a munching party 😱😱😱😱 I have tried everything I know HELP
I had to dig up a wonderful hydrangea because the tender new spring growth was being devoured by something, I suspected molluscs, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary…?
Well the Heather is not true as 2 snails in my pit have devoured my beautiful Heather plant. I took great pride in throwing the snails over my fence to the woodland area. I’m sick to death of them critters
Everytime I turn around, I run into slugs. How can get rid of them in your house?
I wish I had known this back 25 yrs ago, I’ve sold the house as a result of slugs, but thanks I now it now
I have all of these plants in a single 7x5m space and I’m riddled with slugs and snails still so I don’t think they do.just picked off a snail from my rosemary in flower that’s 2″/4″ away from lavender ?
My hydrangeas are in pots doing well for 4 years blooming at the moment beautiful pink
Hi I have a wee tip keeps the snails away,one of my old grans when I get my dog trimmed I ask for his hair works fine round the pots and planters the snails can’t get passed it
Slugs & snails are eating all my new plant i have put in, how can i stop this, ive tried copper tape but i dont like to kill them
Yes they can l, but need more maintenance.
Thank you for the perfumed plant suggestions and plants. I’ve been growing some sage cuttings so I think I’ll try those.
I’ve also got a problem with ground elder. I’ve tried growing tagetes minuta but find they don’t transplant very well. Are there any other plants that inhibit it, please. Also sticky willow. We have a large old walled garden and I seem to fight these, as well as nettles and Dock leaves.
Its my hydrangeas that snails are eating !
Great advice, thanks, after they destroyed a large fresh campunala, I took your advice and planted lavender, geraniums, dwarf snapdragons, euphorium(excuse spelling) and will bring some herbs from my back garden to the front, to where these pesky pets have eaten loads of my flowers in pots. Thanks again.
I have several hydrangeas planted in large pots for several years with a drip system in summer/fall.
They just demolished my new mint and parsley in large pots!
I apply a ring of vapour rub like Vicks around the pots with a paintbrush and they won’t cross it. Good for protecting petunias French marigolds and lettuces in pots.
Don’t forget garlic! Many established gardeners use a concentrated garlic mix in a sprayer or watering can ; or, plant garlic bulbs at intervals around susceptible plants.
We were told that copper strip works well and bought some to try. All seemed Ok until I witnessed a slug moving at speed over the strip of one pot and in the process of climbing into the pot. Needles to say it did n’t succeed.
Unfortunately, I have found slugs climbing into my pots eating the geraniums and my hydrangeas this season along with mint and thyme that generally are resistant.
Not sure about hydrangea – they seem to like mine a lot! They munched through all the leaves