The winner: Viburnum, 83/100. Runner-up: Begonia at 82.
Black walnuts poison the soil around them with juglone, and most planting lists just guess. Every species here carries a university-documented juglone-tolerance record: then earns its place on shade, bloom and upkeep.
The picks
The flowers that won
The top score, plus the qualifier that asks least of you.
Handles the walnut's shade too: full sun, part shade · Bloom under a hostile tree: 2 months · Care while it grows: low
Flaws, not dealbreakers:the show is short, about 2 months; no vase data in the postharvest literature
Deer: rarely damaged (Rutgers A)
71/ 100tap for the breakdown
Handles the walnut's shade too18 / 25full sun, part shade
Bloom under a hostile tree8 / 302 months
Care while it grows25 / 25low
Stands up to deer20 / 20A
The protocol
How the score is built
4 rules, 100 points, no opinions. Every line reads one field of the table.
Handles the walnut's shade too25 pointstakes full shade 25; part shade 18; needs the sun a walnut steals 8 Read from: the light it is documented in.
Bloom under a hostile tree30 pointseight or more months 30; six to seven 26; four to five 23; three 15; two 8; one 3; no bloom data 8 Read from: the months it is in bloom.
Care while it grows25 pointslow upkeep 25; middling 14; demanding 4; sources disagree, we average the range; no rating 12 Read from: how much upkeep extension guides report.
Stands up to deer20 pointsRutgers A, rarely damaged 20; B 14; C 6; D, deer candy 0; not rated 9 Read from: the Rutgers deer rating.
Not ranked here: no extension source documents juglone tolerance.
The full method ↗
The leaderboard
The top ten
The 10 highest of 11 that qualified. Tap any score to open the lines behind it.
Handles the walnut's shade too18 / 25full sun, part shade
Bloom under a hostile tree15 / 303 months
Care while it grows14 / 25medium
Stands up to deer6 / 20C
Considered, not chosen
Not qualifying is a verdict too: the table simply says this question is not theirs.
no extension source documents juglone toleranceRoses, Peonies, Sunflower and 71 more
The winner's badge
Generated by the ranking above, and re-scored whenever the table changes.
Viburnum
The badge is generated by this ranking, not awarded by hand. When the
table changes, it re-scores itself.
How we rank
We keep one table of 85 flowers,
with 25 documented facts each, drawn from university and extension sources. Every ranking is
a published formula worth 100 points; tap any score and it unfolds into the lines that made
it. A flower that does not fit the question is not scored lower: it is excluded, and the reason is
shown. When the table changes, every score and stamp updates itself.
The full method ↗
