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Mule Deer Winter Browse (17 Plants) | Spring 2027
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$409.99
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$479.95
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Ripening
Will it finish before your first hard freeze?
Check it on the Ripening Map (opens in a new tab)The shrubs mule deer browse through winter, planted as clumps in a draw or along a coulee: chokecherry, native American plum, silver buffaloberry, golden currant and Rocky Mountain juniper.
| What you get | 17 plants: Chokecherry (3, 3-5 ft.), Native American Plum (3), Buffaloberry (5, 2-3 ft.), Golden Currant (3, 3-5 ft.), Rocky Mountain Juniper (3, 8-15 in.). Bare root, shipped or picked up in Missoula in spring 2027, roots wrapped in moist sawdust. Guaranteed to bud out. |
|---|---|
| Hardy to | Zone 2 (winters to about -50°F). Check your spot with our cold hardiness calculator. |
| Why these | Chokecherry is a preferred mule deer browse on winter ranges across the Intermountain West and Northern Plains (US Forest Service). Buffaloberry is important winter browse in North Dakota, and NRCS calls plum highly preferred browse for mule deer. Golden currant is a preferred shrub in Great Plains draws, and juniper is winter forage and cover. |
| Pollination | The plum seedlings pollenize each other. |
Buffaloberry and juniper come as separate male and female plants, and these are seedlings, so the sex of each one is unknown until it blooms. Plant them all together to give yourself the best odds of both.
How to Plant for Mule Deer
Mule deer avoid dense thickets when they feed, so plant scattered clumps, not a solid wall. Habitat guidelines for the Great Plains keep woody cover to about 30 to 40% of the area. Woody draws are some of the most valuable mule deer habitat on the plains. Keep livestock off the planting, and if you fence, use wildlife-friendly fence (42 in. max with a smooth bottom wire at least 18 in. off the ground).
Keep junipers away from your fruit. Rocky Mountain juniper hosts cedar-apple rust and its cousin rusts, which also hit crabs, hawthorn, serviceberry, pears and mountain ash. University of Minnesota Extension says keeping junipers a few hundred yards away cuts the problem down, though spores can travel farther.
Keep livestock away from chokecherry. The leaves, bark, stems and pits are toxic to livestock, especially cattle and sheep, and wilted leaves are the worst.
Protect Them
Deer, elk and moose browse young plants hard, and bucks rub trunks in fall. Cage each tree until it's out of reach: a welded-wire cage about 5 ft. tall and 3 ft. across works for deer. Where elk come through, MSU recommends an 8 ft. fence with a top rail. Trunk tubes alone won't stop rubs. Water with drip the first couple of summers.
Bear country: fruit draws black bears and grizzlies. Plant well away from houses and outbuildings, and use electric fence where bears are around.
Is Planting This Baiting?
Growing plants is habitat work. Rules on fruit or nuts you pick, move or pile up vary by state, so check your state's hunting regs before you hunt over it.
For the full how-to (why these plants work, spacing, protection and timing), read our mule deer planting guide.
See our other wildlife bundles on the wildlife orchard bundles page.
Photos: mule deer by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (public domain), via Wikimedia Commons.
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