Last Updated on August 10, 2023
Do you live in gopher country? I feel your pain! Gophers are a giant nuisance here on the Central Coast of California. Without cages, they’ll eat and destroy everything we plant in the ground. Well, just about everything… Thankfully, there are a number of plants that gophers don’t like to eat. Read along for a list of over 50 awesome gopher-resistant plants for your landscape. As an added bonus, many of them happen to be drought-tolerant and California natives!
I’ve broken this article down into a complete list of all gopher resistant plants, as well as separate lists of gopher resistant California native plants and fruit trees/shrubs for easy reference. But first, let’s briefly familiarize ourselves with gophers, a few disclaimers, and non-toxic gopher control methods like gopher cages.
Table of contents
About Gophers
Gophers, also known as pocket gophers, are burrowing rodents native to North and Central America. There are over 30 different gopher species, and are mostly found in the western half of the United States as well as Florida.
Gophers are known for their uncanny ability to destroy gardens, farms, and ornamental landscaping. They create vast networks of subterranean tunnels, and leave telltale mounds and holes at the soil surface. Gophers primarily eat plant roots, tubers, and bulbs, which can easily stunt or kill plants. They often pull entire plants underground! Our veggies wouldn’t stand a chance if they weren’t planted in raised garden beds with hardware cloth below. Learn how to build gopher-proof raised garden beds here.
Gophers are much larger than voles and moles, and significantly more destructive. Voles also eat some vegetation but less ravenously, and moles prefer non-plant food (e.g. insects, grubs, and worms).
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What plants do gophers avoid?
Gophers tend to avoid plants with a strong scent, bitter flavor, toxic sap, or similar irritating traits that make the roots, leaves, or stems less appealing to snack on. Rosemary, eucalyptus, oleander, and gopher purge are prime examples. In many cases, gopher resistant plants are also undesirable to voles, deer, rabbits, or other rodents. On the other hand, some plants are simply irresistible to gophers. In our garden, gophers are drawn to fig trees, verbena, and artichoke plants like potato chips!
Disclaimer and Gopher Cages
Gophers aren’t usually attracted to the “gopher resistant” plants listed below and should leave them alone for the most part. Meaning, these plants certainly won’t be their first choice when other food sources are available. However, gophers may eat just about any plant if they’re hungry enough! Young plants (of any type) are especially vulnerable to gopher damage.
So, even if a plant is considered gopher resistant, it may be prudent to plant young or valuable plants (e.g. expensive trees) in gopher cages – particularly if you’re dealing with a very active gopher population. Cages may not be necessary with just a couple of gophers around. It’s also important to note that the gopher resistance can vary depending on the variety or cultivar of these plants.
For example, we’re currently planting dozens of native gopher resistant plants – rock roses, catmint, yarrow, and sea daisies – but are still using flexible (moderately protective) gopher cages to offer the plants some level of protection while they get established. Roll-on mesh “speed baskets” (available in one gallon or 5-gallon sizes) are cheaper and much easier to work with than sturdier firm wire cages or DIY hardware cloth baskets, but they’ll degrade with time and gophers do occasionally chew through them. I would NOT use them for gopher-susceptible plants, but they’re perfect for this instance!
When in doubt, use a gopher cage to protect your plants.
Non-Toxic Gopher Control
Whatever you do, please do NOT use gopher bait or poison to control gophers. It puts ALL animals at risk of secondary poisoning and death – including domestic pets and wildlife! All too often, curious canines, cats, birds of prey, opossums, or other predators eat poisoned gophers (or rats) and become poisoned themselves.Learn about alternative non-toxic gopher control methods here, including pre-made gopher cages, DIY cages, raised bed protection, gopher repellents, natural predators, traps, and more.
Gopher Resistant Plants: Complete List
Here is a list of over 50 plants that gophers are not attracted to. An asterisk* denotes plants I have direct experience with and can personally confirm are not bothered by gophers – at least in our garden! And we’ve been gardening where gophers are rampant for well over a decade.
- Alliums (especially ornamental alliums) – gophers may eat garlic, onions or leeks but usually avoid them
- Amaryllis Belladonna
- Anemones
- Artemisia – including wormwood, mugwort and sagebrush
- Bearberry (groundcover manzanita)
- Bottlebrush*
- Breath of Heaven
- California Buckwheat (Eriogonum)*
- California Fuchsia (Epilobium)*
- Catmint*
- Ceanothus (California lilac)*
- Citrus trees* (once established, I would cage young trees)
- Coffeeberry (California buckthorn)*
- Columbine
- Coyote bush
- Currants (Ribes)
- Daffodils
- Day lillies
- Elderberry*
- Euphorbia species – cacti and succulents in this family, along with “gopher purge” (Euphorbia lathyris)
- Eucalyptus*
- Ferns*
- Fescue
- Fountain grass and deer grass
- Foxglove
- Grevillea*
- Hellebores
- Indian Hawthorn
- Lantana*
- Lavender*
continued below…
Gopher resistant plant list (continued)
- Manzanita*
- Marigolds*
- Monkeyflower (Mimulus)*
- Mint family* – including culinary mint or perennial shrubs like Coyote mint
- Monterey Cypress trees
- Mullein (Verbascum)*
- Myoporum (ground cover)
- Nandina (Heavenly bamboo)
- Oleander
- Palm trees
- Pomegranate* (supposedly, with ‘Wonderful’ variety being the most gopher resistant)
- Penstemon* (to varying degrees)
- Pine trees and redwoods
- Pineapple guava (feijoa)*
- Rock Rose (Cistus)*
- Rosemary*
- Salvias and sage* – especially native perennial salvias and Mexican sage
- Sea Thrift (Armeria)
- Seaside Daisy (Erigeron)*
- Society Garlic
- Strawberry Tree* (Arbutus unedo, marina, and menziesii)
- Thyme*
- Toyon
- Wild Ginger (Asarum caudatum)
- Yarrow (Achillea)*
- Yerba Mansa
- Willowherb (Epilobium)
Gopher Resistant Fruit Trees or Shrubs
If us humans like to eat something, gophers probably do too! Unfortunately, that means there are very few gopher resistant edible plants:
- Elderberries
- Citrus, once established
- Pineapple guava (feijoa)
- Pomegranate (supposedly with ‘Wonderful’ variety being the most gopher resistant)
It’s also been reported that gophers don’t like to eat mulberry trees, avocado trees, apricots or plum trees, but we’ve had a mulberry and avocado killed by gophers! In fact, they chewed right through the basket and ate all the roots down to a nub. To be safe, I suggest putting all edibles and fruit trees in gopher baskets where gophers are a known menace.
Gopher Resistant California Native Plants
Landscaping with native plants packs a punch of benefits. Native plants support local biodiversity, wildlife and pollinators, are generally less maintenance, require no fertilizer, and here in California, have to be drought-tolerant. Even better, many California native plants are also gopher resistant! The ones that could survive constant gopher pressure here are the ones that have persisted and thrived.
- Artemisia – including wormwood, mugwort and sagebrush
- Bearberry (groundcover manzanita)
- California Buckwheat (Eriogonum)
- California Fuchsia (Epilobium)
- California grape
- California goldenrod
- Ceanothus (California lilac)
- Coffeeberry (California buckthorn)
- Coyote Bush
- Fescue (California and blue)
- Indian Hawthorn
- Manzanita
- Monkeyflower (Mimulus)
- Penstemon (Penstemon clevelandii, spectabilisand more)
- Pine trees and redwoods
- Salvias and sage (e.g. Salvia clevelandii, Black sage, hummingbird sage and others)
- Strawberry Tree (Arbutus menziesii) aka Pacific Madrone
- Wild Ginger (Asarum caudatum)
- Yarrow
- Yerba Mansa
Sources: Personal experience, California Native Plant Society, Mostly Natives, Tasty Landscape, SF Gate
And that concludes this lesson on gopher resistant plants.
If you too struggle with gophers in your garden, I hope this gave you some great insight on plants to consider growing! Let me know if you have any questions or insight to share in the comments below. Also please consider pinning or sharing this post if you found it useful. Thank you so much for tuning in today, and happy plant shopping!
You may also enjoy:
- Non-Toxic Gopher Control: How to Gopher-Proof Your Garden
- How to Make a Homemade Gopher Basket for Trees
- 17 Ways to Save Water in the Garden and Landscape
- How to Build a Raised Garden Bed: Step-by-Step Guide
- How to Connect Drip Irrigation to a Hose Bibb (Spigot or Faucet)
