Viewing post #2544768 by Jobe01

Mikamajik08 said:
I have one of those coming, and I am so psyched to see more pictures of it!



Yesterday's deer-browsing event was annoying, yes, but tolerable. So they sampled some buds, no big deal.

Well, today's browsing is downright UNACCEPTABLE. (For those who watch Adventure Time, please insert the Earl of Lemongrab's "UNACCEPTABLEEEEEEEEEE" scream here. If you want to hear the way I am screaming this word, feel free to Google a video of "lemongrab unacceptable".)

This is a cropped image taken yesterday to show how many Pink Stripes buds I had.


This morning I have zero buds left.
Zero.
(It's the top left tall scapes)

And Pink Stripes isn't a rebloomer! They robbed me of another week of my favorite daylily!

THIS IS WAR.

Tonight, I will be spritzing my daylily scapes, then dusting them with cayenne. THOSE DEER SHALL SUFFER BURNING MOUTH AS MY EYES WILL SUFFER A LACK OF PINK STRIPES. At least, I pretend they will unwittingly eat a super-spicy bud & freak right out. Probably too smart for it.

Also denuded: Elegant Explosion (which opened its first flower this week & had a lot of buds left!), all of Blue Beetle (new plant, still had a lot of buds), all of Midnight Raider, all Naughty Red, several of the NOID red....

Any wonderfully petty ways to fend off deer? I have literally never seen deer eat daylilies. I grew up with daylilies. There is PLENTY to eat right now (lots of rain).

Sorry to hear about your deer issues. They're beautiful animals, but they love daylily buds; a delicacy to them. When we first purchased our daylily nursery from Bob R. 3 years ago, and began moving the flowers to our property, we were very concerned with the deer threat. We live on 5 acres of pasture and forests, about 1/2 and 1/2 each. At any rate, we hesitated putting up an electric fence, etc., as many of our flowers aren't inside a fence, and that would have required something of an undertaking. Additionally, given our location, we wanted to build beds along our property adjacent to a public access road to provide exposure to folks driving by.

At any rate, we are no longer as concerned with the deer threat. We have 4 dogs. They live in our home with us, but spend a lot of time out on our property. When we first moved here, we saw deer regularly. Soon afterwards however, the deer disappeared. Last Fall, we noticed a deer skulking about the periphery of our property. The dogs also noticed and soon gave chase. Needless to say, we haven't had any issues with deer. My understanding is that deer avoid areas they perceive to be of high risk, and do not care for dogs at all.

Something to consider would be bringing a dog, or two, into your home, and allow them liberal access to your yard. That has worked for us and we have no issues with deer, even though we're in the middle of deer country.

Jobe