Normally the deer here seem to be most interested in irises with broad
leaves - they eat foetidissima and chew off (but don't eat) TBs. They
also occasionally eat the edge off a clump of lacustris, rhizomes and
all, and I'm sure they'd get the junos if I didn't cage them. They
will try just about anything - I've had them take bites out of several
genera of cacti as well as eat the spines off an agave. Hopefully
states will become more ecologically conscious and reduce their
whitetail populations down to historic levels, but I wouldn't count on
it. Fencing in whatever you don't want them to eat may be the only
sure way to go.
Sean Z
Zone 5b
Michigan
Quoting v*@msn.com:
>
> Last year Whitetail deer decided that at times my Louisiana type of
> irises tasted real good, even though in prior years they completely
> ignored them. They also decided last year that my crinums were
> delicious.
>
>
>
> Vic
>
> Zone 8B
>
> Crawfordville FL
>
>
> To: iris-species@yahoogroups.com
> From: IrisAcher@aol.com
> Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2010 13:20:14 -0400
> Subject: Re: [iris-species] animals eating iris
>
>
>
>
>
>
> 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
>
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