QUESTION: Rhododendrons grow well on the shady slope below my deck in the Hudson Valley, but each year, the deer damage gets worse. Can you suggest an alternative that will flower there? I was thinking of autumn clematis but fear deer will eat that, too.

ANSWER: Though deer are not particularly fond of autumn clematis, autumn clematis is not particularly fond of partial shade. It will grow there but will not bloom as well as it would in the sun. And autumn clematis in winter is a bunch of thin brown stems, no substitute for the bushy evergreens you would be enjoying if the deer did not keep enjoying them first.

In your situation, I would plant pieris, also known as andromeda (which it is not) and lily of the valley bush (which makes some descriptive sense). These lovely evergreen shrubs flourish in the partial shade and moist acid soil that encourage rhododendrons. But pieris has narrower, shinier leaves, which are bronze to bright red when young, and its flowers are far more delicate, drooping trusses of little bells that open in early spring.

There are a great many varieties, from ground-cover-height to 8 or 10 feet. Flowers come in white to dark pink, and many are powerfully fragrant. Most of the widely available choices are Pieris japonica, which can be tender in the North. But a couple of the best, Brouwer's Beauty and Karenoma, are hybrids of P. japonica and the much hardier native species, P. floribunda.

Brouwer's Beauty is larger than Karenoma and has fewer flowers, but other than that, the plants are similar: very cold-hardy, slow growing and bushy, with fragrant white flowers, dark green leaves and good resistance to the lacebugs that are pieris' only real pest.

Brouwer's Beauty is sold by most well-stocked nurseries. Karenoma and many others are sold by Greer Gardens, 800-548-0111 or www.greergardens.com, and Bloom River Gardens, 541-726-8997 or www.bloomriver.com.

QUESTION: My 3-year-old catmints have grown into 5-foot whorls, crowding and shading other plants. Is this because I fertilized with horse manure? Can the plants be divided this spring?ANSWER: Even jazzed up with horse manure, a single catmint plant is unlikely to spread 5 feet. Those whorls are almost surely lax plants (too much fertilizer), surrounded by many equally sprawly babies. Catmints can root where they touch the ground, and if allowed to form seeds they become catmint run wild.Divide the original plants or replace them with medium-size young ones from the outer region. Give away or bury the extras. (If you put them on the compost, they will just take root and make more.) Do not give them any more to eat and remove any mint kittens before they can grow up.

QUESTION: Whenever I visit Florida, I admire the pretty blue flowers of the plumbago, which seems to bloom everywhere all the time. Can I grow it in my yard on the South Shore of Long Island?ANSWER: You can grow plumbago in your yard, but you can't keep it there. For northern gardeners, this plant is either an annual or a houseplant that summers outdoors. Like lantana and impatiens, or for that matter philodendron, Plumbago auriculata grows like a weed in the heat and humidity of Florida, where it can be 5 or 6 feet tall and almost as wide.Some call it a shrubby vine, others a vining shrub. In other words, it is floppy and shapeless, with lots of straggly branches that tend to bloom at the ends.Frequent pruning will help keep plumbago rounded. Or you can encourage its vining side by tying it to a trellis. If you want to carry it over year to year, keep it in a large pot and trot it in and out, or plant it in the ground each spring, then dig it up and repot it each fall.As long as your summers are sunny, hot and humid, your plumbago should bloom abundantly. But it won't get much more than 2 feet tall the first year. And unless you have giant pots and a greenhouse, it will always be smaller than those eye-catching Floridians.Plumbago auriculata plants are sold by Logee's Greenhouses, 888-330-8038 or www.logees.com. Seeds are available from Park's Gardens, 800-845-3369 or www.parkseed.com.Address questions to Garden Q&A, The New York Times, 229 W. 43rd St., New York, N.Y., 10036, or by e-mail to gardening@nytimes.com. Those of general interest will be published. Unpublished questions cannot be answered individually.By N.Y. Times News Service