The Deer ate / "razor bladed" the Hostas down to the stumps. It must have done it before, from the looks of those.
"Razor bladed" like cutting a plant down with a razor blade.....

OMG, I'm glad I asked! You don't even want to know what I thought that meant

Hmmm. As a born native German speaker I surely say silly stuff at times....

Edited to add German!

Nothing like a good 'hard pruning ' in the perennial beds.

@Ursula, what you said makes sense, *I* am the one who completely misunderstood At first, I thought it was some type of deterrent for the deer, but THAT didn't make sense at all. Thank you for clearing that up for me

Ibis, !

More carnage this morning. Guess Bambi was tired and decided to take a nap in my Hedychium coronorium. You can't see it in the picture but almost all of those stalks were in bud or blooming. They didn't munch on them, just slept there. Grrrrr

For breakfast or maybe it was a midnight snack they enjoyed some begonias and the Billbergia nutans, plants I have had for 16 years. They had never touched them before. It's funny, they didn't touch the Crinum menehune.

What a shame, Alice. Break out the blender and mix up some evil smelling stuff to put around the plants? I've heard eggs mixed with raw garlic and hot pepper powder does wonders - for a while.

Your deer are certainly hungry for any juicy green foliage, what with your drought conditions.

Can you stand the Hedychiums up again, or are they broken? Maybe a tomato cage?

Oh man, Alice...that stinks
I think Crinum are in the 'Deer Resistant ' category, which might explain why they were spared.

I have always had good luck with the systemic deer repellent tablets but this year nothing works. I have tried the home made stuff and it smells horrible but it does wash right off unless you add Elmer's clue to make it last longer. I can't believe they ate the bils, they are so hard and spiky. I am off to buy more stinky spray.

I wonder what kind of wine goes with billbergia?

Jim

Burgundy!

Not if is caused the deer to fall asleep on them!

Champagne goes with everything!

It is me who needs the champagne, lots of it.

You can stake those gingers back up, Alice.

They are not just leaning over but mostly stepped down and broken at the base Ken. Usually deer do not like to sleep in such fragrant plants, we often see where they have rested in the brush, but it is obvious something very large was rolling around out there.

What a shame, Alice

If the stems are broken, staking won't help. I am sorry for the loss of so many great plants. Mine started blooming early last week and the fragrance is really nice. With just a gentle breeze, their fragrance travels all the way to our patio, 50' away. I am starting to see an increase in hummers too. These gingers are hummer-magnets!

The 5 or 6 that weren't snapped off or crushed are standing up again by themselves. I know the rhizomes are fine and they needed transplanting anyway but I hate missing that fragrance. I am off to NJ tomorrow so I sprayed the entire garden with Dr. Bronner's Peppermint soap last evening and this morning I hit all the likely plants with deer repellent. It is raining everywhere up and down the coast, just not out on the sea islands. The drought has all the critters looking for moisture wherever they can get it. It will be interesting to see what happens while I am gone.