Iris & Deer

Are there certain types of iris that are more deer-resistant than others? I have a back yard that is frequented by deer. I love bearded iris, which I have in my front yard. Before I add beds to my back yard, I'd like to hear what luck you've had with deer leaving you irises alone.

I have never had Deer mess with any of my Iris and we have herds of them throught the year! I have beds in the back yard as well in the front yard, but the deer leave them alone completely.

If you live in a climate in which browse is available for deer year round, they probably won't bother your irises at all. But if you live where winter is winter, browse defoliates in the fall, and deer are likely to enter spring in a state of starvation, they may, indeed, graze your irises until more appealing plant material becomes available. Irises are one of the first plants to green up in the spring, which is what attracts deer to them if nothing else is available. Under normal circumstances, deer don't eat irises because the plants really aren't palatable.

Laurie

So, if the deer nibble at the new foliage on the iris, how will that effect the blooms for that season?

I'll let you know. We are having such an exceptionally late spring here that the deer are doing HORRIBLE things to my most accessible iris beds. Tree and brush buds are just now starting to swell, but they haven't opened yet, so the deer will NOT leave my irises alone. Usually I get my very first iris bloom of the season right about now, but it ain't gonna happen this year. The deer have grazed so many of the fans down to the ground that I don't know if I'll be getting much of any bloom in the bed they've done the most grazing in. But who knows. Maybe they'll recover once the deer move on to their natural browse, which should be open within the next week.

Laurie

The iris in my front yard are safe as the deer rarely go there. But our backyard is another story. There's a large empty (land locked) lot behind us. There are lots of green stuff back there for them. But my husband feeds the birds and squirrels year round and the deer will come up to get the seed that falls to the ground. I'm trying to convince him to move the feeders a little further from the house but he's not wanting to do that yet. Oh well, when I get around to putting in the new garden beds back there over the next few years, I'll have to figure out how to work them into the plan :~)

it took a while to realize with my veggie garden that, even though we are totally surrounded by land within the city limits, we're in the "county" and have deer. Veggie garden went no where, didn't produce - finally figured out why.

So it became a large TB iris bed last year. What others told me might happen happened: deer lifted up new plants out of rain-softened soil, but dropped them untouched hither and yon. Guess they really don't taste good. They left established clumps alone. and, except for the iris losing their position, tags, therefore their identities (until they bloom), nothing else happened.

Well, there's only one way for me to find out how our deer are going to deal with iris in our backyard...get more iris :~) Right now I'm narrowing down my list of iris that I want to get...and trying to keep my nose out of the iris I have blooming right now LOL!

oh yes, best way to solve all problems and resolve all dilemmas is DEFINITELY MORE IRISES!!!

I only have deer problems once in a while, but what I have learned to do is to set up those fold up square tomato cages around them to keep the deer out -- also dogs which like to crash though my iris patches. I admit they are unsightly, but normally I only leave them up until the animals are broken of the habit of grazing or running through my yard. When the deer really have the munchies I put a row of the cages side by side around the attractive item. I use galvanized pea fences about 4 ft. tall around my fruit trees. If the tree is large enough, it takes two fences end to end to encircle the tree. I have a small crabapple that I encircled with a pea fence around and then an old bent up one over the top to make a cage. After a while this protection can be removed. My peach no longer get munched.