deer have eaten the tulips

[janeyo]

I am gutted. I love tulips and always have loads in pots. They had about 5 inches of good growth on them so I moved them into the borders only yesterday. The pesky deer have uprooted most of them, bitten chunks out and strewn them about. I have potted them back up as best I can.

Might they recover? I guess the bulbs will be ok for next year but have prob lost them this year?

Hope the darn thing has belly ache

Can't afford to deer proof the garden but they are really becoming a pain, and the pots were ony yards from the house too!

[Nicos]

Oh dear ( no pun intended!)

...and I was getting upset about one of the ferrule cats scratching up my crocus bulbs every other day! ( well silly me I say...fancy planting them in their 'toilet bed' anyway!!!!)

Hope you get some colour from the bulbs..but you know..the deer will always win

[janeyo]

I thought they might be poisonous to them? They haven't touched the daffs or the hyacinths....... YET

[Nicos]

maybe that's why they were strewn about the place...ewww..that's not nice...nor this one...how about those over there..eww...maybe the red ones are tastier...EWWWWW

....maybe they'll leave them alone in future now they know?????? ( no idea - but it's good for morale!!

[janeyo]

OH keeps saying he likes venison... but I don't want that to be the answer. Plus there is defo more than one of the critters about. I have seen 3 different ones.

I am fed up 'feeding' them my prized stuff, why can't they eat the weeds?!

[Alice]

You have all my sympathy Janeyo. I had them in my last garden and the bandits ate everything they could get their lovely lips on including the flowers in the pots right outside the doors. The roses were their favourites but nothing got spared. In the end we had to fence them out and their was an acre to fence. I'm sure everybody was sick of me banging on about them but they are total pests. I was about ready for inviting Rat to come and bring his gun. At one point I had 6 of them - a buck, two does and 3 bambies. At that time I would have been happy to make Bambie burgers with the lot of them. But the fence worked - nothing else did - I tried the lot.
Hope you can find a solution but I think it has to be a fence. The bandits will be back.

[spennysaint]

spray the flowers with hairspray. My nan always puts flowers on my grandads grave, the deer always ate them. someone told her to try hairspray and they haven't eaten them since. They were particularly fond of daffs and tulips but don't touch them now. May be abit much to spray all of the flowers but you could maybe give it a go on your favourites(or the deers!!)

Claire

[janeyo]

I might try the hairspray I've got a can I bought in about 1991 and not touched since lol.

Alice, how high did you make the fencing? There is already some 4 foot fencing, but there may be holes, hard to tell as it's all hidden behind thick conifers screen.

[Alice]

Hello Janeyo, we had a very similar situation with conifer hedging and some 4' fence running in amongst it . The blinkin' deer seemed to be able to find the smallest gaps and they put their head down and limbo under fences. The spaces they can go through are unbelievable. And they can jump 8' - i've seen them do it - and they're quite happy to walk in the gate and go up and down steps.
The good news is the fence doesn't have to be too much. They're not like bullocks who will just push a fence over if it's not too sturdy. We used posts and chicken wire. We put the posts just outside the connifers (it was our ground) and ran the chicken wire in 2 layers - one above the other - all the way round. It was probably about 6' high. You have to make sure the chicken wire is all the way to the ground or they just limbo under it. It was time and money but it did the job.
Have a look and see if you can see where they come into the garden - you can usually see a little path - and start there. That will only keep them out for a short while as they just find another way but at least it will keep them out while you are working on it.
Hope you can sort it as I do know what they are like. Heartbreaking.

[janeyo]

Thanks Alice. I will have to move quick before they send all their friends round for a pre-dawn feast