To give them a little added boost, you might want to sprinkle a little bone meal over them before you bury them. Place bulbs in the ground, pointy tip up and the roots down. Plant bulbs in the fall well before the first freeze.
To enjoy gorgeous blooms without worrying about the Cow of the Forest nibbling on them, opt for bulbs that deer know well enough to steer clear of unless they want a bellyache. And eating those can do some serious damage, as one family found out when they mistook their spring daffodils for onions. The calcium oxalate crystals in flowers of the Amaryllidaceae family are raphides, which is the super fancy scientific name for needle-shaped clusters of oxalate crystals. Only those are block-shaped, so they just make your mouth feel funky. You know that feeling you get on your teeth when you eat raw spinach? Yeah, that’s oxalate crystals. Nibbling on plants with oxalate crystals can cause deer extreme pain and swelling to the mouth and gastric distress. (That includes us, so no eating your daffodils.) Calcium oxalate crystals LycorineĪ crystalline alkaloid that is poisonous to deer and other mammals. Many of the plants on this list contain two well-known compounds that keep deer away. These substances make the flowers inedible or toxic to deer, who are (usually) smart enough to skip over them in favor of something that won’t give them an upset stomach. The flowers listed here are deer-resistant thanks to the toxic plant compounds found in each. However, if you want a deer-resistant garden, get out your lab coat and those super-sexy lab goggles because we’re going to Chemistry class.
So, no garden will ever truly be deer-proof. But if a lean winter or drought has made for slim pickings, deer will eat what’s available. Sure, they have their favorites, and there are many plants that they will avoid. Is it green? Is it vegetation? Chomp-chomp-chomp. (Not so majestic now, are you, Bambi!) Maybe a more appropriate comparison is with goats because, like goats, deer will eat most anything in their path. It helps if you think of them as the cows of the forest. Then, the magic of the moment kind of wears off, and the swearing and banging on the window begins.ĭeer are natural-born grazers. Well, until they start eating all my flowers. And let me tell you, there’s nothing quite like getting up early in the morning, hot cup of coffee in hand, and watching a doe and her spotted fawns step gingerly from the forest covering to come and drink from the fog-covered pond. We have an impressive rotation of critters that pass through the yard. My sweetie lives on a plot of land surrounded by state game lands. Instead, you can make your flower beds less appealing by planting a few of these deer-resistant bulbs this fall. Keeping deer in check can be a real struggle.įencing in your veggie garden is an easy way to keep them out, but what about flower gardens? Fenced-in flower beds kind of kills the point of the natural beauty they’re meant to display. Oh, you mean you didn’t plant these apple trees for us? What do you mean your flower bed isn’t a salad bar? Pfft, rude. These four-legged-munching-machines will graze, uninvited wherever you grow veggies, flowers or fruit. Anyone who gardens in even the slightest rural area can attest that there is no such thing as a deer-proof garden.
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