I was looking around on Lazy S's hoping I could get a couple of more Helleborus and the one that has been on my wish list is easy to grow and naturalizes but I did not know it will keep deer out of the garden, they hate the smell and will not go near. Go figure.

>>>>Helleborus foetidus -Aristocrat of the woodland garden. One of the first flowers to bloom and they're a welcome sight. Evergreen leaves prefer a location out of the wind. A VERY RARE collector's plant. All parts POISONOUS. Never move or divide. Protect from wind. We find that wherever we plant these, moles and voles seem to avoid all the plants in the nearby area. The only Hellebore that works as a cut flower and a great one it is. AND not only is it deer resistant but planted amongst your other perennials and allowed to naturalize,

WILL KEEP DEER OUT OF YOUR GARDEN. They won't go anywhere near this plant!<<<<


http://www.lazyssfarm.com/Plan...

I do not have deer my self but I still want this plant, It also would be nice to have a few cut flowers in the winter!

It is worth a try. Deer react different in all areas. In my area they did not get that memo. I have them around my front gardens and the deer ate the Azelea, and Yews. In the Spring they eat the daffodil which is also suppose to be poison to deer.

Deer, deer, deer, how do you put up with it? I wonder if I would even have a garden but on the other hand there are a lot of deer resistant plants, are they really resistant?

Are they resistant? No. If a deer is hungry they will eat anything. Our winters have been to mild so the food is not as plentiful to support the survival rate to keep them from eating things that they do not like or are suppose to be poison.

So resistant only means if there is something else that they like they will not eat but once their first choice is gone they go on to eat "Deer Resistant". They just cannot resist when they are hungry.

Have you ever heard of Irish Spring Soap bar or shavings from a bar? Seem like a lot of people use that, even some farmers. It's cheap too!

http://www.qdma.com/forums/sho...

http://www.georgiawildlife.com...

Again it works for some and not for others , depends how hungry they are. Put the soap in a old stocking and hang from tree or shrub.

Yes I get 2 bars for a dollar at the dollar store. Bob is right if they are hungry they will walk past the soap and eat. It really does not matter.

Adding H. foetidus to my 'wish list' that I cart to all my nurseries (I don't do much mail order). Sounds like something I could plant out in my wild areas and hope for naturalization.

I got one on my wish list also, It will be nice to have extra evergreens. They say it reseeds easily.

Here is a list of , Bambi's least favorite foods. (link)


http://landscaping.about.com/o...

Our deer here never bother the Loropetalums, which are flowering evergreen shrubs. They are a staple shrub in our garden.

Among non-shrub things, they also leave the Heuchera, daffodils, Berberis, Euphorbias (which reseed readily), and calla lillies alone.

If you like re-seeding annuals, they have never bothered my Nigella hispanica 'African Bride' here, either.

Thanks!

I love flowering evergreens, Loropetalums are beautiful and I have seen them in big box stores but I have never seen one actually growing in this area, ever. I do not know why such a pretty shrub would not be more popular.

The deer in my area consider heucheras to be deer candy. Mine didn't last one night out in deer territory. I've moved them in back where the deer can't get to them.

Smiles,
Lyn

Yes deer are different in every area. Heucheras are eaten here too.

Wow.... Amazing how different the deer can be, from one garden to another. I have to wonder if maybe (to some degree) it is a species thing.

Here the deer are Black Tailed Deer. (It is either an offshoot of Mule Deer, or vice versa... I think even the scientists aren't quite sure.) Maybe your deer, Lyn, are Mule Deer, and have different tastes?

Or maybe it's just that my deer prefer to eat the daylilies and Pelargonium and Gerbera blooms, and my tall hedges (whatever they are made of...).

I haven't really checked them out to determine what kind of deer they are in nature. I call them "Town Deer". Many have been born and raised in town, so they have learned that gardens are the best place to find stuff to eat.

Deer are not supposed to like irises either, but town deer love them.

The only real predator they have to fear is man. My neighbor's dog just goes up to them to say "Howdy".

btw ... because there used to do a lot of ranching in this area and it's illegal to have your dog chase deer.

So, I consider the front of my house "deer territory" and anything they might like gets planted in back.

Smiles,
Lyn

Polymerous said:Wow.... Amazing how different the deer can be, from one garden to another. I have to wonder if maybe (to some degree) it is a species thing.

Here the deer are Black Tailed Deer. (It is either an offshoot of Mule Deer, or vice versa... I think even the scientists aren't quite sure.) Maybe your deer, Lyn, are Mule Deer, and have different tastes?

Or maybe it's just that my deer prefer to eat the daylilies and Pelargonium and Gerbera blooms, and my tall hedges (whatever they are made of...).

You might be on to something there! Out in the country we have White Tail Deer and maybe they like different things and have different taste? Their main food is Acorns, but maybe it's all about availability. If acorns have a bad year they might be eating daylilies.

The deer here are maddening; they sample most things, but they definitely have their favorites (daylilies (leaves and bloom buds), bloom and bud on Pelargoniums and Gerbera, my hedge; they also eat willow leaves and branches (THAT I don't mind, as they actually do a nice job of pruning for me!)). Over the years I have tried lots of other plants (by now, I can't remember what they were, except for Cosmos), which were pretty much devoured.

They have never touched the irises, though.

Good thing about the Iris! how about those stinking hellebore?

We had a few different hellebores at one time in the garden. Some survived, some didn't... I'm not entirely sure which are the survivors (which the deer do not bother), nor what did for the others. But given the choice between the two plants on my label list, I'd say that the survivors are Helleborus argutifolius.

(You must be wondering why we don't know what is in the garden, and what happened to the labels. It is a very long story, involving a massive relandscaping effort (which originally started out as, "we need a new irrigation system, and what do you suggest we do about-?"). In the case of the hellebores, those were put in by a landscape designer (who was drug into the ever-growing project by our landscape contractor). According to my plant label order, some were argutifolius, some were niger 'White Magic', but I vaguely recall at one point thinking that we also had a ringer or two in there. All of the ones that died or went missing, did so in a certain part of the garden that was high shade, and had a fair amount of gopher activity. Those were, at least at one time, labeled. The last part of the planting, done in front of the house (which gets more sun), was done at a time when I was dealing with serious medical issues, and so was not on top of labeling and identifying things. (The landscape designer left the hellebores off the plant list I finally got from her, but judging from the fact that she was drawing on only the local nurseries (and liked to re-use plants), I'd guess those hellebores were a repeat of the originals planted.).)