March 28, 2006
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Hrrmmmph!
Deer are not the sweet little puppies portrayed in Bambi. Really, I don’t mind if they leave little piles in my yard, but eating the tulips down to the ground is going TOO FAR. Is there any hope for tulips which have been bushwacked? Any hope? Puleeze!
Comments (6)
They may possibly come back, with corkscrew leaves, and then they may not.
My mom, when we lived in Tucson, planted some tulips 10 inches deep. She figured- once they didn’t come up- that they were lost for sure. Then later in the season, lo and behold there they were- just the flowers sitting on top the ground! No stems or leaves showing, just the flowers. The moral of the story is, you never can tell with plants.
How is the book about the Greeks?
What a thing to imagine! Flowers sitting on top of the ground like that! I love hearing stories about your mom. I miss her…
Well, Bonnie, I’ve only been dipping into Cahill’s book. A few pages here and a few pages there. I’m getting a feel for it. I’ll start a disciplined reading soon. It’s good, what I’ve read so far. I really, REALLY, enjoyed his book on the Irish.
I think the best way to get tulips in your yard is to plant daffodils…Well they won’t truely be *tulips*, but they won’t be vermin snacks either…we have had the deer up on our porch here…and of course they have nibbles and chomped at most every thing in the yard…*except* daffodils!
BB
A tip I’ve read but never tried to keep deer out of your garden: place human hair cuttings (lots of them, like from a beauty shop) in a piece of nylon stocking and place around your garden. The deer will smell the human scent in the hair and won’t come close enough to bushwack your tulips. (In theory, anyway). Sorry for losing your flowers!
Kent reminded me that there is a recipe involving eggs blended with water and sprayed on the plants that protects them from the beasties…I cna get you the recipe if you have eggs to spare….hey its almost Easter, there should be some sales or specials!
Yes, Brenda, you’re right, deer do not eat daffodil and narcissus shaped tulips. They also do not- technically- eat iris either, they just bite off the flowers, don’t like the taste, and drop them to the ground. Which frankly I find a bit odd, because normally if a deer doesn’t like it, it doesn’t eat it, and if it does like it, it devours it, they don’t usually take the taste-it-toss-it route. (That is more of a goat type thing.) Ah well.