Help deer eating iris's

Just had my iris foliage coming up and the blasted deer came through and ate them down to the ground I thought they were deer resistant, does anyone have an idea as to how to keep the deer away from them

The deer are currently grazing my irises, too. What I have found over the years is that deer will graze irises at times during the year when they have no natural browse (early spring and late fall). This spring has been so cold and slow that NONE of the trees or brush (the deer's natural browse) have leafed out yet, but the irises are growing, so the deer are coming to the irises for fresh greens. They will do the same thing in the fall after their natural browse defoliates.

As soon as the browse leafs out, the deer will leave your irises alone, and the plants will recover. Aside from waiting it out, the only thing that truly deters deer activity is 6' chainlink fence.

Laurie

LOL 6' chainlink fence is not an option here, so guess I will have to wait it out thank you for letting me know Laurie,at least they will come back

Del

Perhaps a hardware cloth screen bent over the plants while still small will make them difficult to reach until other deer food leafs out.

Thanks will try that, not as good as a fence but might work

I have fair luck using "Deer Out" sprayed directly on the iris fans every so often and then I also spray a perimeter of "Liquid Fence" around the beds. I have noted that it is the younger deer who graze and pull up my iris.

Nana3

Thank you nana will look for the deer out in my area have not heard of that, I do have liquid fence though

So, does the Liquid Fence work? I hate to keep buying different deer deterents only to find out they don't work.

The chemical deer deterrents generally work on deer that haven't been exposed to them before, and they only continue to work until the deer get used to them.

may I ask what type of iris it is they are eating?

our deer will be able to pluck up and iris from out of the ground here after a good rain softens the ground, or a newly planted irsi, but they generally drop it somewhere nearby without so much as a nibble. But Ive only got bearded iris.

My deer graze the bearded iris fans, though they will also eat beardless iris flowers on occasion.

bonjon I bought bearded and reblooming iris's from brecks it was their ultimate collection

For some reason I thought iris were deer resistant :~( Guess I'll have to refigure what I'll plant in a bed in my backyard LOL.

As I stated earlier, the only time deer munch on my irises is when their preferred browse has not yet leafed out in early spring or in late fall after their browse has defoliated for the winter. Irises certainly are NOT a preferred forage for deer, but they will eat them if they get hungry enough.

Good to know!

oh blast - I've been encouraging my sister to plant irises as the deer near her eat all her other blooms. so much for that!

I have read that planting thorny plants like Rosa Rugosa or thorny cherry bushes around your garden will discourage deer from eating your garden. Haven't tried it though. This was in Gaia's Garden, a well known book.

Rose grown so that branches are overhanging hosta has kept them from sticking noses into that plant. When the rose was trimmed back, the hosta disapeared so have kept that branch over it ever since.

So, maybe the thorny bush method works! That is a nice ecological way to go.

please tell - what is thorny cherry bush? only heard of cherry Trees.

Oh dear, I hope I didn't make that up. I will have to do a little research and get back to you on that.
Betty

I will try to figure out if there is a thorny cherry bush, but in the meanwhile, in your area, consider blackberry bushes, or pyracantha, or barberry. Those are thorny and can be ornamental ( blackberry bushes are pretty when they bloom and grow fast).

and invasive- but that's ok - like blackberries!

Well so far they haven't eaten my giant jonquils, just got up this am and found that they had eaten all the violas and my shock wave petunia's back to the drawing board, they haven't botherd my iris's since the first time though

I know one annual they will not eat -- except perhaps one bite -- nicotiniana. You might try that among your flowers. Learned that from a friend who had a lot of deer.