what ate my purple coneflowers :-(

I always thought the purple coneflower was deer and rabbit resistant. Is it really? The plant in the picture is only one of the 5 damaged over just one night. I cannot think of another animal that are big enough to eat so many plants overnight. Do groundhogs eat plants? Sorry about the question that might sound stupid to some of you. I never lived so close to nature until 2007 and had very little experience with plants being eaten by something...

By the way, the joe pye weed was also half eaten.

The deer love my purple coneflowers. :-( This year I'm trying Plantskyyd repellant (which smells AWFUL and I recommend wearing gloves and not spraying near the house). I'm only trying it because I also have a resident bunny who thinks normal repellants are condiments, and if I'm going to the trouble of spraying everything, I want it to work for all the darn critters. A lot of people swear by Bobbex, which isn't as nasty to use.

Rabbits love my purple coneflowers, much to my dismay.
I learned a few years ago that I must fence them with chicken wire or else they won't make it to summer.
This doesn't look like rabbit damage though... they eat coneflowers down to the nub (ground level). Stalks and all.

Btw.. don't bother with pepper, garlic, etc as a deterent. I tried and the rabbits didn't care.

Good luck,
Shane

It looks like groundhog damage to me.Thats just what they do to plants.They will go after sunflowers the same way.I have been somewhat successful trapping them.Caught 4 last year.Have not seen any this year in my garden.They can do incredible damage in one night.I hate them.Given a choice between a $20.00 dollar plant and a $2.00 plant,guess which one they eat.Edge

Edge, you were right. I saw the groundhog in the garden, munch away. He must have been very hungry to come out in rain. Anyway, I have sprayed the garden with deer and rabbit repellent. Now I need to go find something that can keep groundhogs away.

I am new to this neighborhood and never had problems with critters before. It looks like that I need to pay attention to plant selection. Otherwise, garden sprays alone will cost me a small fortune each year :-(


This message was edited Jun 5, 2009 8:41 AM

Have you considered getting a dog or cat? My cat is an indoor cat, but my Westie, Tiffany, is a natural rodent hunter. I keep her on a long lead when gardening with me. She barks and chases rabbits, groundhogs, squirrels, chipmunks. The squirrels, unfortunately, come back for the black walnuts.

You could always ask Santa for a red rider bb gun, only kidding.

Only an ancient cat. I can probably ask my neighbor to walk his golden retrievers around my garden.

Woodchucks eat mine. AND the black eyed Susans.

I feel for you. I have two new beds in the rear of my yard, and just discovered that rabbits have eaten all the lilies that I planted this spring, and the buds on the coneflowers. I was so mad, I could just spit. I had spent a long time planting everything, and had grown these coneflowers from seed.

I finally decided to transplant some of my coreopsis to this bed. (I have so much coreopsis that I just pull it up and toss it out every year.) I just moved it Tuesday, and it has rained everyday since, so I had an opportunity to check the beds. For the future, I am investing in sages, agastaches, salvias, and any hairy smelly or prickly plant that I can find.

I finally got a chance to inspect the damage today. In the area where I saw the groundhog, all 6 coneflowers and a phlox are bare stalks. The tops are gone and no leaves are left on them. The shasta daisies have also lost their flower buds. I am going out tomorrow to shop for something to keep the groundhog away, maybe a pair of beagles 8-(

Got the link to this article from a friend: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/05/garden/05animals.html?_r=1

I say no mercy. I got a good look at everything today, and if I could find that rabbit, I would squish him.

I feel your sentiment about the rabbit and their rodent cousins...as I was shaking out crushed red pepper on my veggie and flower gardens (the other day) noisy neighbor walking by.... said she was "concerned" about the "poor little rabbits' tongue!" Please note that she doesn't have anything growing in her yard ( 2 trees, no shrubs, no grass, no vegetables, no flowers, no nothing even the weeds are few and far between) so I gave her a blank look and asked her so gently " so what are you doing about the coyotes that are hunting and eating them (rabbits) at night?" Needless to say Miss Noisy hurried away!!

Pen, sorry about your garden too, especially the lilies. The worst thing about losing lily buds is that there won't be any lily flowers this year.

The groundhog has been back. The sunflowers are bare stalks now. So that's it for this year. The joe pye weed was beautiful and healthy even yesterday, but 80% of the plant is gone by this morning. There are a few leaves left at the bottom. I don't know if some of the plants can still bloom this year if I cut them back :-( By the way, the black eye susan seedlings and coneflower seedlings were also eaten to the ground.

I lived in Fairfax until 2007. Dealing with wildlife is a new thing to me. I have much to learn from other gardeners in battling the critters.

Garden6, do peppers work on groundhogs?

The seedlings may regrow for you as the rabbits definitely dined on my rudbeckias last year and they rebounded in early Fall. I had to fence the area off and did the crushed red pepper thing then as well!

Donner~ I don't know if crushed red pepper works on the groundhogs...but it's worth a try. I used it over a week ago to run off an oppossum that was making an early morning visit to my veggie garden and haven't seen him nor any damage since.

Oh yes, I also surrounded his entry point with an upside down vinyl carpet protecter so maybe the pricky tacks helped ward him off as well!

The best investment for me was buying a havahart trap.I tried sprays and coyote urine,pepper,moth balls etc.The problem with them is they don't last.There was no way I was going to put this stuff down after every rain storm.I don't want to deter these pests.I want them gone.Last year I caught 4 groundhogs.They now live 30 miles away.The only draw back is sometimes you catch other critters,like skunks and raccoons.It is still worth it to me.No sign of groundhogs this year,so far.I still have my trap and I am ready for battle.If I didn't live in the city,I would just shoot them.Edge

I've used my smallish hav a heart a got rid of probably 10-15 babies in the past 3 years. Need to get a large trap for the baby producers!

Groundhogs destroyed about 40 plants before I got a chance to buy a bottle of repellent last weekend. It is supposed to stay effective for UP TO 30 days. So you know it won't last for 30 days. I also ordered a HAVAHART trap that should be delivered this week. Will relocate them if I catch them.

I could tape Tiffany barking and send you some hair. She barked and chased him away (as far as her lead would let her) a couple times. both she and the cat have kept watch by the back door. Tiffany barks at the critters, the cat runs away and looks out the upstairs window until they are gone. After I cut tiffany's hair, I put some around the hole in the fence. I haven't seen him (or any lettuce damage) since.

It is always possible that someone else set a trap or something, you never know.

It must be heartbreaking to see so much damage. Especially the lilies. I hope that they will at least come back next year.

I was coming to say groundhog, but looks like I'm late to the party! :)

The groundhog will come back and keep eating the leaves - if you're lucky you'll get some mature flowers on naked stalks! (I've seen them eat the young flowers before they get prickly so sometimes there's nothing there but stalk).

I found this thread on gardenweb.com that helped me pick plants that weren't attractive to the groundhog. So far no munching on echinops, agastache, salvia, sedum and some others. I'm also going to try planting onion next to the echinacea and rudbeckia to see if that'll discourage it (next year anyway).
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/peren/msg0310575312886.html

Good luck!

Dog hair... interesting idea. I might go to the groomer for some :-)

evie, thanks for the link. I am growing salvia from seed this year. Love agastache and will get some. The groundhog actually ruined my sedum too. I am not sure if the sedum was eaten, but it was kinda dug up and looked rather smashed. I did replant what was left of it. I think it will survive.

interesting re: sedum. I saw a squirrel eat one of mine in late winter...the pretty one that turns red, too. ah, critters :o