Designers List of Shade Plants for Root Weevil Resistance

Designers List of Shade Plants for Root Weevil Resistance

Root weevil disfigure so many shade garden plants and can make a garden look ravaged. It’s disappointing to see hosta and other plant leaves looking all chewed up. Can we design a shade garden with beauty and style without using root weevil favorite snack plants?

“Well HELL that’s not much of a shade garden” is what I said after eliminating plants root weevil like to eat. I was disappointed in the tiny number of plants that would work and wandered off to write about something different, something a bit cheerier!!!! However, I’ve been thinking about it and yes, we have some great plants we can use. 

Evergreen Shrubs with Root Weevil Resistence

Aucuba, Daphne and Fatsia are not root weevil favorites and if you select the variegated forms the notching doesn’t show as much. To be specific, Daphne odora ‘Marginata’,  Fatsia japonica ‘Spider’s Web’, and Aucuba japonica ‘ Gold Dust’ are varieties that I recommend.

I have never seen much leaf damage on our Native Huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum) probably because the leaves are so tiny.  It doesn’t show which is what we are after. This summer (2025) I saw more leaf notching on my native huckleberry but it doesn’t show much and the plants seem very healthy so I am planning to hand pick root weevil off the huckleberry in May next year to get an idea of how many weevil I have in that garden.

Three Root Weevil Resistant Rhododendron for Part Shade 

I’ve found  lists of root weevil resistant rhododendron less than helpful since most of the Rhododendron listed are sun lovers. Root weevil prefer part shade to shade loving plants. Morning sun or dappled sun gardens are fair game.  I have seen lots of damage in north facing gardens as well.

Rhododendron ‘Clipiense’ is my best weevil resistant compact rhododendron for shadier situations. This rhody has fine hairs on the leaves so root weevil rarely bother it. It’s a slower growing variety and can take more shade than the other two I have listed but not deep shade.  Any rhododendron with a hairy or fuzzy leaf will be root weevil resistant.  Many of the hairier leafed plants are sun lovers but not all.

Rhododendron ‘Sappho’ is a tall white flowered w burgandy splotched flower.  Sappho does well in morning sun, dapples and afternoon shade.  

Rhododendron ‘Blue Diamond’ can take full sun but does well in full am sun and afternoon shade. It can get taller than wide.  I am basing my list on my own personal experiences.  After nearly 30 years in this industry I have seen a lot of home gardens but can’t speak for any where except Portland Oregon and the Willamette Valley.

Perennials That Have Less Root Weevil Damage  

Our native Sword fern (Polystichum munitum)  has a fuzzy frond (leaf) and root weevil don’t eat fuzzy leaves typically. I’ve never seen damage on a sword fern. Not all ferns are root weevil resistant.  Harts Tongue Fern was riddled with notches at my client Diane’s garden. Most fuzzy fronded ferns will be root weevil resistant and are important players in a root weevil free shade garden plant composition. 

Hellebores are typically safe from weevil once they are mature plants but not all. When the soft and munchable new leaves unfurl in February the root weevil have not hatched yet (here in Portland) so are not present until late April or May. Leaves harden off more in June so you will see some weevil damage.  It seems to depend on how hard the leaf is in May.  Using sticky foot around the base of the hellebore would help trap some of the adults before they did much damage. The harder leafed hellebores like Helleborus argutifolius seem particularly impervious. 

Groundcover Plants   

Oregon Oxalis (Oxalis oregana) doesn’t get a lot of weevil attention in my gardens and it is fun to add to salads. Our native piggy back plant Tolmiea menziesii has hairy leaves and is great for shade. For Saxifraga varieties, use the hairy leaved varieties for weevil resistance, the smoother ones are on the weevil munch list. Root weevil will feed on these plants listed above but not heavily.  Another good bet is Sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum), it gets some bites but not in high numbers. Smooth leafed Helleborus orientalis can get pretty munched if numbers of weevils are high but Helleborus argutifolius with thick leaves rarely has any notches.   I don’t see a lot on Hellebores foetidus.  It is soft enough but they don’t seem to like it as much as Helleborus orientalis. Hardy geranium varieties that smell like cedar and have a fuzzy leaf are 100% weevil resistant – Geranium macrorrhizum for deep to moderate shade and Geranium x cantabrigiense for part sun areas.   Ajuga can get some damage but are not on the weevil favs list.  Astilbe can be pretty fuzzy but their leaves are so dissected it would be harder to see any notching so I remain skeptical as to their weevil repelling properties.

Last but not least, Euphorbia Rob’s spurge (Euphorbia amygdaloides var. robbiae) is a tough evergreen ground covering shade plant. I consider it a thug but it’s great to use in gardens where I have a stone path that doubles as barrier to their creeping roots. This plants roots must be contained or it will march right over your hostas. I’ve never seen any root weevil damage on this plant.

 Know Thy Enemy?   

Root Weevil have no natural predator here in the Pacific Northwest so it’s rare to find a shade garden without them.  We can cut the population of root weevil down to tolerable numbers and thus get our beautiful shade garden back. Read my blog “Attack of the Root Weevils”  to learn what can be done to reduce their population in your garden.