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Old 11-06-2010, 06:46 PM posted to rec.gardens
Billy[_10_] Billy[_10_] is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Mar 2010
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Default Is there an animal that will selectively dig up baby hollyhocks?

In article ,
TotallyHomey wrote:

My wife says the neighbor is stealing her hollyhocks. She is probably
correct. The holes are clean, like from an English hand trowel, no
foot prints around them. What is left of her seedlings in a hole
2"wide by 3" deep. They were randomly planted amidst scattered other
species. My wife is not into symmetry. So... if they were stolen by
a human, the thief had to know exactly what the baby plant looks like.

I read somewhere that baby plants are eaten down by rabbits but they
do not dig holes. Red and gray squirrels eat bulbs .. not rooted
planted as best I can tell.

So .. it seems there is an 80% chance she is correct and maybe
there is a 20% chance squirrels are doing it, but do not leave digging
mounds and not tracks?


Grey squirrels chewed the tops off of my African marigolds this year,
and just left 3-4 in. stumps.

Something else, possibly a squirrel, or a jay, has been digging in my
hanging planters, but there were only nasturtium seeds, which have
subsequently sprouted. I covered the tops of the planters with chicken
wire to prevent future predation.
--
- Billy
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the
merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arn3lF5XSUg
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/HZinn_page.html