Maybe it just me but I find the plant screener worthless. No matter what I select as a desired characteristic it says I am being too specific. Got to be kidding. Off the top of my head Sago palm matches.

1. Shrub
2. Full sun
3. Deer resistant
4. Zone 8b
5 Prerenal
6. Evergreen

The plant entry would have to have a checkmark in every one of these boxes to meet your specifications. Most of the sago palms aren't hardy to zone 8b. I found one that is hardy to that zone, but it wasn't marked "deer resistant." That's why you're not getting any results.

Given that I have about 15 Sago's on my property, after 22 years in Zone 8b, I can assure they do quite well. I have two varieties but I have not taken the trouble find out their names. Deer would never eat a sago. The fronds are sharp and prickly plus the sago is poison to some animals. Further the moisture of the sago fronds is very low and would not appeal to a deer. I do not pretend be super knowledgeable of plants but I do have 400 or so plants consisting of 107 varieties in my yard. I also probably tried and pulled up another 30-40 because they didn't do well in a variety of locations and soil conditioning.

Bottom line is the Sago should have been listed. If not the sago then something. Perhaps the screener thinks the sago is a tree or something. At any rate I am going to give a Red Yucca a shot along with a few "Pinkie Hawthorns.


In my search criteria what do you think was the killer that caused me to get no listings?

The killer was the number of characteristics you wanted to be matched. There were no plants in the database with every single one of those characteristics listed. The information in the database is added by members like you. Some members contribute information to the database each day, while others never contribute anything. You may know that sago palms are deer resistant, but the database can't know that until someone adds that information to the entries.