In a message dated 4/26/2010 1:07:27 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
voltaire@islandnet.com writes:
Deer
do not eat any of my iris.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
You are fortunate. We used to think white tail deer didn't eat bearded
irises around here, either, but in the past few years, my experience has been
very different. It started with occasional bites taken out of the fans, and
often just spit out again (but still damaging, since newly set irises would be
pulled right out of the ground). Over the past two years, the local deer have
become voracious eaters, not samplers, of my bearded iris plants. They
particularly go after the center of the fan, snipping out the developing
bloomstalk and more tender center leaves, in preference to the outer
leaves. They also eat my house foundation plantings of holly bushes, to the
point where even covering them with plastic netting during the winter has not
saved them. After 2 years of severe mutilation, the plants now look so bad
that I am giving up and going to take them out. I have no idea what to replace
them with! Rabbits snip off the burning bushes that are also in that
planting.
It could be extreme population. Not too far away, the Village of Cayuga
Heights, near Ithaca, is having such a terrible time with deer depredation that
they are VERY actively quarreling over how to control the herds....paid hunters
even a strong consideration. Cornell University, abutting Cayuga Heights,
has to take extreme steps....fencing, netting, "glop" sprays, to limit the
damage to the Cornell Plantations and ornamental plantings, and even those
steps are not very effective. Deer run through the campus freely.
No longer fond of deer here!
Dorothy
Spencer, NY, USA
