Columbine- I have a few different types that are doing well. They are only a few years old and were started from seed via winter sowing, but I am quite happy with them. Nice and healthy.

Hollyhock- I had some near the house two years ago, but something kept eating them. Probably a rabbit or groundhog. One managed to survive and bloomed its head off last summer. I planted more in a different area and hope to get blooms this summer since they remained uneaten! Very easy to grow from seed.

Foxglove- I have one white variety that bloomed for the first time last summer. I'm waiting to see if I can achieve that cottage garden look or if it stays small.

Yarrow- I have two that are doing very well, even though I move them at least every year!

Bee Balm- Good around here but spreads a lot. Last summer was hard on mine because of the lack of rain, but it managed to get big with a lot of flowers. Did get a bit mildewy, though.

Peony- Perfect for this area. One of my favorites.

Oriental Poppy- Love the big red ones I have. They readily self sow and produce lots of seeds.

Salvia and Thyme also do well.

I haven't had any real problems with animals eating things, but that's not to say I won't later. They are always on the lookout for the new buffet in town!

Hi lesnyc

Columbine - mine haven't done too well - never figured out why

Hollyhock - luv em! Have huge black hollyhocks thanks to Alberta on winter sowing who sent me seeds. Made a mistake about where I planted them - they are very tall but they are gorgeous and kept blooming till December. Also have double ruffled cerise colored ones that are stunning.

Foxglove - my foxgloves did very well last year - I was surprised, I had forgotten that i planted them - they didn't bloom the first year.

Delphinium - don't have

Yarrow - don't have

Siberian Iris - my Irises always fall over

Bee Balm - love it and so do the bees

Peony - if you don't like ants you won't like peonies but I love them, and I have them in full sun and partial shade

Oriental Poppy - I don't particularly like them, not partial to the leaves

Salvia - great for bright spots of color

Thyme - have several varieties in my herb garden

Would also suggest lemon balm.
My favorite perennials are old garden roses, and lilacs.

Dee

All of these plants are the traditional easy, cottage graden types that one can expect to find at walmart or any garden center. They will most certainly do well with a little tending. Deer are not usually a big problem with these. There are many other things they would rather eat.

Holly Hock, Delphinium and Foxglove tend to be short lived, and spread quickly from seeds. Foxglove is a known biennial. It will die after blooming unless you get one of the longer lived varieties, which you will not find at walmart. Try Northern Dutchess botanicals, and make sure you ask for perennial rather than biennial. Beebalm will spread and bloom in very poor, dry soil, but like most plants will have the most appeal in nutrient rich well drained soil.

My snowdrops are blooming!!!!!!! My favorites change with the season. I really love my yellow tree peony and epimedium rubrum, but love everything else when it blooms.
When we moved to this house 30 years ago, one bed had several peonies (which still do well, they need ants to cause the buds to open) and a million purple phlox which bloomed at the same time as a million orange-red poppies, both of which are abundant self-seeders. The color combination was horrible but the poppies, seen in a mass were quite astonishing. I've weeded out the purple phlox, saved the pink and bi-color and moved them but they almost always get mildewed in mid summer, doesn't affect their bloom. The poppies were also weeded out, very difficult to do because a small bit of root left behind will quickly regrow. I've saved a few and some pop up in strange places, they need constant vigilance. NOTE, this is a local type and looks different from the red, clump forming poppies. Each of the orange blossomed ones lasts literally one day, then drop their petals, making something of a mess. They also leave a bare space in summer, growing leaves only spring and fall.

I dont have much luck with purple floxglove or the perennial ones (purperea?)I wish I did but I now have a thriving colony of the wild yellow ones. They are quite tall and are also perennial. I harvested seed from some growing along the road side a number of years ago. There used to be a lot on the roadside below the current Wallmart in Ulster.

Columbine...I now have several different types, Nora Barlow (double burgundy and white,grown from seed) and lots of pink to blue to purple...a favorite is pink with green tinge. All do well, self seed everywhere but prefer to grow in the random bluestone walk. I think they like cool roots and good drainage. I've noticed the wild (red with yellow) prefer to grow on rock faces. Many get leaf miner which doesnt affect them much.

Siberian Iris do very well, older dark purple-blue given by my 80 year old neighbor 30 years ago, and 10 year old white which look fantastic with the pink peonies.
I did loose a 10'x2' border of the purple ones one winter, totally eaten, not a single one left, devoured by voles tunneling under the snow I had piles on top of them. Since they self seed, I again have a bunch. Occasionally get some kind of worm that eats the buds.

Hollyhocks are one of my favorites, (the deer also love to eat the leaves, I try to cover them with chicken wire in the early spring until the deer find other things to eat) mine are all pale shades of yellow, pink, coral, single.I'm totally opposed to the doubles which look like kleenex flowers I made in 3rd grade. All from seed I gathered here and there. Had some violent fushia pink ones that looked bad with everything but have removed them.

Bee balm does spread a lot but if you have room to let it go somewhere, the hummers do love it. It also gets mildewed but doesnt seem to harm it. I have a wonderful dark maroon one from a friend.

I'm laughing at remembering Kleenex flowers.

Delphinium and salvia are the only plants you'd have a problem with where you live, up in the Catskills (zone 4/5). Salvias aren't hardy up here. They give a good show at the end of summer and then the freeze/thaw kills them. I grow them as annuals.

I don't know much about delphs except when I grew them (they were stunningly gorgeous) they got some disease common to the plant and they all died out. They need a lot of staking.

Deer will eat hollyhocks right down to the stem nubs, and leave you crying, so don't bother unless you have them inside a fence or you are religious about using deer-proof repellent. I agree about the singles being the nicest.

Foxgloves and peonies love it up here, and deer don't eat them. Foxgloves like it at the edge of woods, in sun, near dead logs (moisture) or in my gravel driveway.

The deer eat bee balm to the ground here and even munch on it through the snow, so beware. It also gets wicked mildew.

Shasta daisies are really tough and beautiful. They reseed and the deer don't eat them. They are beautiful with irises and annual (but self-seeding) nigella. Cut them back to the ground after flowering and you may get some rebloom.

Siberian iris is beautiful, but it blooms for only a week or 2 and takes up a lot of space with its leaves, so it's not good for a small garden unless you like leaves.

The other plants, people have covered.

Deer will eat hollyhocks down to the ground. I grow the rugose hollyhocks which don't get rust. Deer won't touch foxgloves and I grow the pale yellow ambigua which is a true perennial and also self-sows a bit.
I have the old fashioned columbines which I select for the pink and white shades, pulling out anything purple.
Have never had ants on peonies and they open just fine - and seem to be deer resistant as well.
Think my favorite plant is nepeta Walker's Low - something else deer don't like. Also anise hyssop (agastache). I like aster Purple Dome and Raydon's Favorite but deer do eat them. And rabbits like them too.
My snowdrops were flowering before this snowstorm hit - and they'll be back once the stuff melts. Daffodils are not eaten by deer so I have planted a lot of them in the woods. And the tomasianus crocus are mostly ignored by squirrels and voles and seed themselves, as does chionadoxa and winter aconite.
Of course, what I mostly grow are roses - and, sadly, deer and rabbits love them too.

I have had columbines for years, and they've never been eaten, but they are up against the foundation, so perhaps the deer and other little critters don't come that close? I started foxgloves from seed last year, they did bloom a little in the fall, and should bloom this spring. Being poisonous, they didn't get eaten in my garden either. I keep trying hollyhocks, but they just get eaten up every year. My peonies are beautiful, they've been in my garden for 20 yrs, nothing has ever bothered them. Delphs got nibbled a bit, not too much. They are supposed to be poisonous too. Such beautiful shades of blue! I started oriental poppies from seed last summer , which weren't eaten, but haven't bloomed yet. The annual poppies are not eaten in my garden either. My problem isn't so much the deer, it's woodchucks! They eat more than the deer do. At least, with deer, you can spray with deer off, but it doesn't stop the woodchucks. I planted quite a few bearded iris in the fall, and I certainly hope the woodchucks and deer don't like them. For a while, I tried to stick to a deer and woodchuck resistant garden, but got tired of limiting myself to plants they don't like. Now I just fight them with repellents and sprays, and it's better. Except for the hollyhocks and sunflowers, no matter what I do they still eat them. I think I will have to give up trying to grow them.