One of the most asked questions we get at the nursery is:" What plants are deer resistant?"  It is well known that deer love to munch on Hosta.They love it so much apparently, one mother decided to give birth early this morning amongst the hosta in my greenhouse. 

A little background now.  For those of you that do not know, my husband and I had a wholesale nursery for about 27 years in Western Howard County.  While we no longer run it full time, my husband still grows many hostas and daylilies (another deer favorite) for Behnke's.  We are lucky to live near a large farm and behind us we planted a forest of pine trees many years ago.  Yes, we have deer and other wild life. We love watching them play each year and hold our breath when they cross the road to the farm. We shake our heads and, yes, sometimes curse when they eat our peas and destroy our corn.  And then comes the never ending battle of, "will they eat the blooms on our daylilies and hosta before we can ship them'?"  We have worked out a way to handle that and, no, we do not shoot them.  I tell people that we just put in plenty of extra vegetables so there is enough for everyone, but in reality I think they actually just like the vegetable garden better than the hostas.  Easier access! 

This morning while I was working on this email and thinking about writing about our old trees that we had to cut down this weekend, my husband called me to come quickly and bring the camera.  There she was! A brand new baby fawn.  He was watering and never noticed her till he was right next to her. He called me and together we watched as the mother watched us from off in the distance. Why she decided to have it there I will never know. Maybe because of the storm yesterday, or the tractors plowing the farm field. Maybe she just liked the idea of a nice cool shady spot.  After taking lots of photos because who knows if we will ever get that close to a brand new fawn, we walked back home...The hosta will have to wait to be watered until today so the mom can move her little one to the pine trees. I hope you enjoy this photo as much as I enjoyed taking it. Yes, deer can cause lots of damage but they can also bring joy.

For a list of deer resistant plants you can click here. This list is meant to serve only as a guide. There are no "deer-proof" plants.

PS: Mother deer had moved the little one by noon and they are both doing fine under the pine trees. 

Albert Behnke loved giving his guests large bouquets of roses.

June's birth flower is the rose, which has more meanings than one can count! A pink rose means perfect happiness, while a red rose means "I love you." A white rose signifies innocence and purity, while a yellow rose conveys jealousy or a decrease in love. A bouquet of roses means sincere gratitude, whereas a single rose amplifies the meaning of the color (a single red rose means "I REALLY love you!").

Roses are garden classics that can be grown for bouquets, to climb over arbors or stand out in the landscape as summer flowering shrubs, depending on the varieties you choose.

Just give them a sunny, well-drained location and don't crowd them with other tall plants. Fertilize well with Espoma® Rose-tone or Plant-tone as directed on the bag to encourage rebloom.

Behnke Garden Club Special: Hardy Ferns

in our Perennial Department 25% OFF! 

Every shady garden needs some ferns. They provide a sense of calm and cool on even the hottest summer days. Some, like the Christmas Fern and Autumn Fern, are evergreen.

Since you don't have many flowers in the shade in the summer, you have to work with foliage color and contrast. Fern's fine texture marries well with the bold leaves of hostas and the grassy leaves of carex.

If you have wet spots in the garden, many of the ferns (ostrich, cinnamon, sensitive, interrupted, for example) are tolerant of periodic flooding. Christmas ferns do well on dry, shaded hillsides. Pretty much a fern for any location, and, they are deer resistant, too. Selection varies between stores and because it was a harsh winter for growers, we may be out of some varieties that we normally have.

Must be a Behnke Garden Club member to get this special price. To join, just  Sign Up Here! It's FREE

Starting Thursday, June 5th, All 4.5 inch pots of Geraniums will be $1.00 off their normal price.  We will also have all remaining vegetable plants 35% off (excludes herbs). This end-of-season sale is "while supplies last" at both of our locations.

Friends, Gardeners, Plant Lovers: join us at Behnke Nurseries in Beltsville Maryland on Saturday, June 7th for the fourth annual Garden Party to benefit the Friends of Brookside Gardens. This is an opportunity for interested people to see what garden clubs have to offer their members, meet plant enthusiasts, ask questions, and maybe even join a club. Representatives from many different organizations will be participating.

The idea is for members of different groups to share with each other and pass on their knowledge and enthusiasm to Behnke's gardening customers.  But there's more to it than that-- anyone who brings a garden plant from home can participate in the "plant swap".

Larry Pendelton from Old Line, Fine Wine Spirits & Bistro

We will have a FREE Wine Tasting Offered by  Old Line Fine Wine Spirits & Bistro &  Food for sale from Soul of the South Catering.

There will be many wonderful items offered as raffle prizes. Including some special donations from Behnke's!

All money raised from the raffle goes to the Friends of Brookside Gardens, supporting the magnificent public garden in Wheaton, MD, so dear to all of us in the Washington, DC area. Last year almost $3,000 was raised. 


We are really excited to announce that Maryland Children's Author Connie Collins Morgan will be at our Garden Party in Beltsville this Saturday signing her new book, The Runaway Beignet. You can find out more about her and her fabulous book by going to her web site.

The Runaway Beignet is a humorous story about a beignet's rambunctious romp through the city of New Orleans. This delightful retelling offers a Cajun twist to the timeless tale of The Gingerbread Man. A cast of characters includes a New Orleans Jazz band, a group of French Quarter merchants, a zany street artist and a French baker named Marcel. Children will marvel at this trickster tale while joi

Elegantly-shaped white hybrid lilies create a chic summer look when paired with creamy roses in a smooth glass cylinder. This trendy bouquet is a perfect gift, but you may decide to treat yourself to some summer chic.

$39.99

Call our Florist Shop in Potomac for more details.
301-983-4400

Available for pick-up at the Behnke Florist, next to our Garden Center in Potomac. Or, request delivery in the Potomac area for an additional $12.
Call 301-983-4400 to place an order.

Behnke Nurseries is concerned about the health of bees and other pollinators. Working with the environmental group Friends of the Earth, we have developed a company policy regarding the sale and use of neonicotinoid-containing insecticides at Behnke Nurseries. While the scientists continue to work on the causes of bee colony collapse disorder, we feel it is prudent to reduce the use of neonicotinoids as they are implicated as one of the factors contributing to this problem. 
Please follow this link to view our policy.

Monday  - Thursday ~ 9 to 7