about deer

Do deer like roses, hydrangeas or rhododendrums? Is there a site to go that lists plants to avoid? Thanks!

Deer enjoy any plant that is alive. They eat everything eventually. Oh except ornamental grasses, potentilla, and Marigolds.

http://www.wvu.edu/~agexten/hortcult/treeshru/resistan.htm , http://www.deerproofbulbs.com/

Please note on the above list that deer will experiment on every plant. IE pull the new plantings out and not eat them, Browse buds off least favorite trees during winter hunger, Eat anything green during hot dry falls where drought conditions drive them into your garden and eat anything, and remember that all this dammage is 100% during the time of day that you are sleeping. We live in Montana in a deer belt area that has over 20 year round resident Deer and over 50 transient deer from the mountains above us. They used to "live" in the mountains but now almost all the population is down in the valley where agriculture and housing provides them guaranteed vegetation and hunting protection during the hunting seasons. We had to fence our 3 acres because EVERY PLANT on the deer proof list was always pulled up and tested the day they were planted. Then the deer would eat any buds on out trees during the winter etc.

Soferdig Sorry for your vexation. We have a lot of deer also, but not as many as you. I had an 8ft fence put around my back yard and haven't had a problem in years. Now I want to pay some attention to the front yard. I'm in a development and some years, they don't seem to come into the front ( at least the hostas are OK). The guy out back made a horsefarm and put in a pond, so at least they have a good water source and don't have to come looking for that by me. Thanks for your reminders, though. I've had things pulled up after planting and left, and I didn't realize what it was. Guess I'll just try a few things and see what happens. Maybe the others in the neighborhood will keep them well fed.

Deer eat everything, including marigolds and any other plant that anyone tells you they don't eat they will eat or at least the entire heard will have a taste of which is just as bad as if one deer ate the whole plant! If it says native, it means yummy for deer, they go for anything native that I plant! I have two red bud trees that I have been calling all manner of names because I gave them prime real estate and they have never bloomed properly. Well, we know why now, the deer are eating the pretty little flower buds! The young deer are not picky at all about what they will eat or taste. They have no qualms about munching anything that is tender and green. It floors me that they eat roses as hello, thorns! I so much as get near the rose and the thorns have grabbed my clothing or skin, the deer no worries at all! I live on five acres of mostly wooded (sans the house and sad, sad attempt at grass) property. We have heards of 15 to 30 that will move through the yard at various times of the year. Right now they have been spending their time in the woods eating all the new growth that it coming out, however yesterday while looking I saw that they have already started the "eat the hosta before its a leaf" mode.

So it is time to spray. I highly suggest two things, (as I have been playing this came for about 5 years now!) Go to http://www.deerbusters.com/ I have had great sucess with their Plant Protector clips (do not run these over with the lawn mower or put them through the chipper as they smell awful!) The Hanging Sachets are great and work for a very long time. I don't know what is in them however my dogs find them a marvelous thing to tear apart so hang them high! The biggest success came with the liquid repellent in concetrate form. For the first time since I have lived here I got to see my hostas bloom last year!

The second suggestion is a book called Deer Proofing Your Yard. It talks about what works and what doesn't, it compares the old wives tales (like soap on a rope and pie plates) to some of the newer methods. It also gives you plant suggestions, like things to plant around plants you want to protect.

I love the deer I love watching them in the woods and seeing them playing tag is grand. I just wish that they didn't eat so much! They are smart too, they know just where the fence line is for my dogs and will go just over it and look back (scent I assume). Ugh!

The attached photo is from winter, there are actually about four sections to the picture as the heard was to large to get into one picture! This was the middle standing in my front yard, near my bird feeders!

I've had success with Liquid Fence (just don't get downwind of the stuff when you're spraying) and on another deer thread in this forum someone mentioned a water scarecrow type thing and swore by it...hm let me look for it...

Edited to say, Here it is:
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/548058/

pam

This message was edited Apr 10, 2006 1:51 PM

Amen indygardenermd. Anyone who can plant anything around deer and not have them eat the plants has very few deer, Live at the peak of the Matterhorn or have a hundred gardens surrounding them that are full of deer food. I have always enjoyed deer also but we need to know they are overpopulating our surburban areas where they have never habitated before. Yes they are wonderful.

when i lived in the hamptons on long island the deer mowed down my day lillies in one night. i put dried coyote blood obtained from a local nursery on the stubs and refreshed it after heavy rain and they never touched them again.

We have a small herd here , 4 bucks, 2 does & 1 baby this year. We buy bins of cull apples at the orchard for them & also always have a bowl of llama chow out. I have a huge flower garden & a 100 foot pond completely surrounded by flowers of all types (except roses) & I have NO problem with my deer because they are NOT HUNGRY. Saw a new product called deerchow at the feed store recently. What we did for a feeder that looks good was to buy a wooden wishing well & take out the bucket, put some concreteblocks in it & set a bowl on them for the llama chow. They love it & even the little ones can reach it. Roses & apple trees are the only things I fence. They are like ice cream to a deer. I know someone will say this will make the deer population increase but we have had the same amount of deer for 24 years.

we need more wolves.

I'm with you JoePye! more wolves, longer hunting season, some coyotes, more bow hunters, more sensible programs to cull the herds.
Why in heaven's name do we have people in this country going hungry when there is so much free food wandering around eating our plants?
I have plenty of room in my freezer for venison where the garden vegtables USED to go.
Bambi BarBQ anyone?

Maddio,
Try your local extension service. They may provide some plant suggestions that are not attractive to the deer in your area. Rutgers publishes a terrific list for us here in North NJ. Good luck!

LadyCleo, a doe and her fawn showed up in the yard back of our house yesterday am. Our collie couldn't wait to get the signal to run out there and tell those deer who's the boss. The fawn was awfully cute.

I'm having luck with Liquid Fence and agree: try to avoid getting the spray on you as it is a very nasty scent.

Never had a deer eat even one leaf off of many dahlias. They've nibbled adjacent blueberries and raspberry foliage, never a dahlia. Dahlias have sort of a spicy scent if you break a leaf or stem, perhaps not to the deer's liking? They get no spray at all and are doing well.

Good question.

Has anyone else out there in the threads volunteered in a soup kitchen serving our homeless or am I alone? There really are hungry human beings out there who for what ever reason, aren't capable of holding down a job or providing the basics for themselves. Sad but true. I've also volunteered in warming shelters before. Not only was a good dinner and good breakfast provided, but we always have snacks for them to load their pockets with. I am convinced that some of these people would literally starve to death were it not for soup kitchens and warming shelters... and the goodness of local restaurants "discarding" food at timed intervals throughout the day.

I'm a proponent of culling the deer. I'd also be a proponent of a return to venison as a commodity.

We humans as a species have only ourselves to blame, of course, for the very real problem of deer overpopulation; we created the problem by systematically and determinedly eradicating all their predators. Beautiful though they are, their overpopulation does no good to their own species or any other, and I too am in favor of culling them back to a level the habitats can support. But I really hate waste, and wish there were a system to put all that protein to best use when there are so many hungry people and animals in our world. Might be good for all of us to acquire a taste for venison if we eat meat... And right on, joepyeweed, we do need more wolves!

We also exacerbated the issues when we introduced them to areas in which they had not existed for the sake of game hunting.

Artificially feeding them most certainly doesn't help matters at all.

In addition to wolves, I'd like to see Bobcats reintroduced.

I hate waste too.

Amen, Equil, to introducing ANY species to areas where they're not native for sake of game hunting! And while we're reintroducting bobcats, which would be great, how about lynx and cougars as well? That would surely shake up the 'hoods, but do the ecological balance a world of good. While on the subject of hunting (off original thread subject - sorry), does anyone else find the concept of canned hunts as abhorrent as I do?