That's a good question! The deer NEVER eat the huge Dr. Huey's I have in the distant garden! They want to come in close to the house and eat the hybrid teas and shrub roses. Also, I'm beginning to think red roses do not taste as good to deer and rabbits. Red Knock Outs get ignored, but the pink ones get pruned down to about 8". Also, I'm sure it's rabbits eating the Drift roses, mainly because they have smaller twiggy stems, and they prune those clear to the ground.
Actually, I've never seen the deer eating the roses, I'm assuming they are the culprit. It could be the coyotes, because I have seen them in the rose beds up next to the house. There's plenty of rabbit poop fertilizing my Drift roses so I'm calling the rabbits guilty as charged.
Lyn, are there no hunters in your area? It really is sad to see deer overpopulate an area, then starve to death. One of my magazines had an ad for an 8 ft deer fence that was basically a super tall vinyl snow fence. It looked pretty easy to install. It wouldn't work here because of the winds, but it might be something you could install by yourself.
