Hi All,
My deer pull up newly planted irises and chew on nice green leaves, but
usually don't eat the blooms except for Japanese irises. I wait for a bloom to
open and find it gone the next morning. They have also been known to eat nice
fat seed pods that we had crossed.
Dorothy Willott
In a message dated 12/3/2012 12:13:28 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
ChatOWhitehall@aol.com writes:
Deer will eat almost anything if they get desperate enough, and what they
don't eat they will walk all over.
That said, both Ii. cristata and verna are dormant in
winter so that at the time of worst deer desperation, they are leafless.
At other times of year, there are other, lusher, things to eat. That fact is
no gurantee that deer won't eat the irises in summer, however.
The stuff with persistent foliage is what really gets hit hard, in more
ways than one.
The only evergreen Iris I've observed being left alone by deer
is I. foetidissima.
The thing that really destroys I. cristata is slugs.
Cordially,
AMW
