3of my newly planted flowers are laying on the ground beside where they were planted..two close to each other,3rd in another bed close by. Roots still intact. I just replanted them.

Squirrels.

Bill is probably correct, but I used to have a cat that seemed to object to some of my newly planted flowers. I caught her in the act of pulling them.

May be deer, when they graze they rip grass and other plants. When ripping they often take th roots of new plants out of ground. If they do not like the taste of the plant, they spit them out a few inches to a few feet away. Rabbits show a razor cut on stems. Do not know of squirrels.

Deer know pretty much what is tasty and what isn't. I have never heard of them picking up plants to eat the roots. I feel that they just eat the whole thing.
Cats love to use the soft dirt of a garden as their toilet. No reason to disturb the 'decorations'.
I have watched a woodchuck go around my yard and eat a few hundred dandelion flowers in a matter of hours. Then they come back and go after the rest of the plant slowly and deliberately.
Voles generally stay underground and eat roots. They generally do not like to spend a lot of time above ground.
Moles can be eliminated as they are carnivores.
But squirrels, I have seen them dig up plants with my own eyes and leave them on the ground. Apparently for no good reason. I have seen them go threw a patch of budded tulips and rip the buds out and leave them scattered on the ground.
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Those are the closest emoji I have to a squirrel! Sorry!!

Do you have chickens? After I planted some new columbines one year, my hens came along and pulled all of them out of the ground in search of bugs to eat.

Bill, I often see deer rip up plants that are newly planted. Their method of eating is to grasp a plant and then yank. Often the plant comes out of the ground, and they drop what is NOT in their mouth, including roots. When planting a new lawn from seed, often find plugs with roots attached feet from where the the plug originated. As far as what they will eat, who knows, I have watched new borns bite daffodil flowers, and spit them out ( they are poisonous). Rabbits slice plants like they have a razor cutting device.

I forgot to talk about rabbits but deer can be quirky to say the least.

Two years ago they munched the top nine inches off of my three cherry tomato bushes that I had. This was very late May of 2018. Those little devils!
The only other thing in my yard that they messed with was a red climbing rose that I planted a few days before. I bought it at Home Depot with well over a hundred buds. They left me with like 5 buds. They kind of took the most tender parts of the Rose but there were small thorns present. I was hoping it would give them a belly ache.
Now I have Hostas, astilbe, marigolds, lantana, buddleia, phlox, sage and Monardas. I am hoping that they do not return to "sample my salad bar".🦌

Another thing is that it might be birds. I've had instances where the tops of small plants were nipped off or pulled out. Couldn't figure out what was doing it until I observed a starling one morning yanking plants.

Rocks around the plant might help till they get rooted in, then they might withstand casual interference.
Sticks stuck in all around can deter other activity and are not too visible.. it keeps my hens from scratching plants out.
Not pretty but the sticks aren't too obvious.

Thanks for the ideas, squirrels might be the answer. we have alot of trees so alot of squirrels.

Welcome!

Bill, watched deer eat a type of prickley pear cactus. Roses are candy to them.

Incredible!

Gloriabee said:3of my newly planted flowers are laying on the ground beside where they were planted..two close to each other,3rd in another bed close by. Roots still intact. I just replanted them.

I read through this entire thread and never found out what kind of flowers you had planted!

If it was in my area, I would suspect armadillo...

Also suspect would be the other animals that dig in fresh soil after earthworms and grubs... like possums, raccoons, and skunk.

If we knew what you had planted, we could rule deer in or out.
I've also had them to pull fresh bedding plants up... especially pansies.

Squirrels seem unlikely, but not impossible.
Squirrels usually do their problem digging in the autumn. But aren't opposed to sampling tender buds and ripe fruit... and will dig for seed.

My friend just told me a squirrel uprooted a tomato in a pot. When she went out to repot it, she discovered a pecan. He's was already getting ready for the winter!

I had thought of something after earthworms, it was petunias, zinnia, and datura, the datura supposedly poisenous, out on the ground beside the hole root and top like I had just pulled them out. My son near is watching a raccoon every night, also a week or so ago there were 3 baby opossums around my yard and his also, like they had been blown out of a tree or dropped from mama during a rain storm. my story ......

Deer would not normally eat zinnia. Great catch Stone, first to ask what plants.

deer definitely wouldn't bother datura, either...

Back in my previous garden, I put so much work into attempting to fence armadillo out... It was impossible!

Eventually, I hypothesized that they were climbing the fence... they are so good at tearing through wire that it remained a hypothesis... until recently...



They seem to be skilled climbers!

Can't tell you how many traps they have torn their way out of....

Anyway...
In a single night, they dug up the same plants like 5 times... I was setting the alarm every hour and going out in the garden (With a flashlight and a weapon), attempting to make them stop, by any means necessary...

Horrible little beasts!

I remember seeing my first one, I thought now what the heck is that thing?
Look like a possum mated with a lawn tractor!!