Rabbit-proof plants for your garden.. yes really!

Keep your garden looking the way you want it by choosing plants that the rabbits avoid! My TOP FIVE suggests some easy to grow plants that have been proven to stay untouched by bunny teeth!

ONE. Hellebore (The Lenten Rose). These plants would survive an apocalypse! Super useful for giving colour when damn all else does, with February blooming! Much underrated, there are so many colours and formations to choose from in the sometimes cult-like Hellebore world. The thick, leathery foliage is avoided by rabbits, slugs, snails.. in fact most of the animal world…!

TWO. Buddleja (The Butterfly Bush). Growing as easily as weeds, Buddleja are well-known and worth growing. Their rabbit-repelling abilities are surpassed too! They’ll be too busy attracting bees and butterflies instead! Look out for the shorter, better-behaved Buddleja Buzz Series though, which won’t take over your garden!

THREE. Impatiens walleriana (The Busy Lizzie). Hang on, before you exclaim, we need to talk about downy mildew. It CAN be a problem with Busy Lizzies, but can be neatly avoided by planting your Busy Lizzies in containers, and ensuring adequate air circulation around the plants. The rabbits are said to avoid it too! Maybe it’s too darn tropical looking for them!

FOUR. Laurus nobilis (The Bay Tree). You know Bay leaves are tough, as I’m sure many a cook has narrowly avoided injury trying to shred them for casseroles et al! They make a handsome tree, bush, topiary specimen.. it’s waffly versatile (or similar!)

FIVE. Helianthus annuus (The Sunflower). Cheerful, happy, smile- all the Instagram tags for this one! Bunnies tend to leave them be too, which is great! Remember there’s more than just the GIANT sunflower too, these days you can find hedging ones, red ones, multi-branching ones, even ones for hanging baskets! Choose them here!

You can find a pretty comprehensive list of even more rabbit-proof plants on the RHS website!