......because the deer ate most of the blossoms and small buds last night
(again). After being hit like that, it takes almost a month for new buds to
develop and produce blossoms. Strangely, my neighbor has a rose garden 15 feet
away which doesn't seem affected and they do NOTHING. The neighbor on the other
side of me has roses with blossoms coming out of their butts but they're also
unaffected. Just me! A Google search turns up advise from 'nothing can be
done' to electric fences to the use of attack dogs staked next to your rose
garden to a nightime patrol with a 12 gauge shotgun.

I'm still waiting for any reasonable suggestion. Anyone with personal
experience with the various liquid sprays?

elfa

On 8 Jul 2003 03:19:43 -0700, elfa wrote:

.....because the deer ate most of the blossoms and small buds last night
(again). After being hit like that, it takes almost a month for new buds to
develop and produce blossoms.

Oh, man, elfa, that stinks. I am so sorry, for you and for me, as I
was looking forward to living vicariously through your photos and
enjoyng the first pretty blooms I have seen in weeks.

I have no experience with deer, but I wonder if a few of those motion
detecting sprinklers might work? That is the only thing I have heard
that makes sense to me outside the high fences, the idea of which
always seemed to me likely to spoil a pretty garden.


Strangely, my neighbor has a rose garden 15 feet
away which doesn't seem affected and they do NOTHING. The neighbor on the other
side of me has roses with blossoms coming out of their butts but they're also
unaffected. Just me!

I know. The lady down the street who uses a local nursery to spray and
prune and mulch her roses (all modern hybrid teas and floribundas) has
four lovely rows of uniformly blooming bushes. I have said in the past
that I hate how they prune to 12-18 inches every year, but looking at
both of our gardens, they must be doing something right. I need to go
knock on her door and see how she keeps the voles from eating the
roots and killing her roses. This weekend I will go dig the stumps out
of the side garden. I feel bruised, and I know you must too. Bambi my
*ss! Are you too far out to employ a shotgun? G




elfa

On Tue, 08 Jul 2003 10:59:55 GMT, (Shiva) wrote:

Are you too far out to employ a shotgun? G

I meant "close in" to the city, not "far out" of course. My brain's
not working yet! Where's that coffee!







elfa

In article m,
says...

On Tue, 08 Jul 2003 10:59:55 GMT, (Shiva) wrote:

Are you too far out to employ a shotgun? G

I meant "close in" to the city, not "far out" of course. My brain's
not working yet! Where's that coffee!

I'm in the city limits but the city limits include lots of undeveloped open
space with lots of wild life. Being only 1/4 mile from hills loaded with wild
oak trees etc, we get everything from deer to possum to skunk to racoon. What
was left of my roses got hammered again last night and so did my neighbors.

elfa








elfa

"elfa" wrote in

I'm in the city limits but the city limits include lots of undeveloped
open
space with lots of wild life. Being only 1/4 mile from hills loaded with
wild
oak trees etc, we get everything from deer to possum to skunk to racoon.
What
was left of my roses got hammered again last night and so did my
neighbors.

elfa

Hi elfa,

We too have deer and because of my distraction
with other things we were paid a very unwelcome
visit by them about three weeks ago that decimated
an extraordinary show in all of the beds outside.
My fault for not spraying but I was working on
something else and everything was so luscious
and beautiful that deer was the last thing from my mind.

Here is what has worked for us. It is similar to a brand
named DeerOff and it works. At least it has worked when
we sprayed it ;)

3 eggs left outside at least for a couple of days in the sun
2 heads of garlic (not two cloves, two whole heads)
1 small bottle of Tabasco

Put the eggs in a blender with the garlic and the Tabasco
and add about 1 and 1/2 cups of water and blend at
high speed to make a liquid formula of it. Strain carefully
(it stinks but it works and that is what counts) into your
sprayer and add enough water to the sprayer to make
one gallon of liquid. ( You can make it weaker than this
by adding another half a gallon of water and still will
work, but I like to keep them way away from the whole
garden so we use it concentrated to a gallon ) -

It will stay on the roses even after rain, and the noxious
odor will disappear to a human nose in a couple of hours
but the deer will still smell it for at least 4 weeks. At least
here. We spray ours in the evening to avoid any kind of
disagreeable smells to us, and since the deer visit at night
they learn that the place is covered with something they
don't like and stay away.

Good luck and I hope it works for you as well as it has
for us when we remember to spray it ;)

Allegra

elfa writes:

What
was left of my roses got hammered again last night and so did my neighbors.

Elfa, really I am sorry your roses were hit by the deer. But I had to smile at
this, at least there's some consolation, you're not alone. If you can't have
blooms then neither should your neighbors!
Julie

In article ,
says...

elfa writes:

What
was left of my roses got hammered again last night and so did my neighbors.

Elfa, really I am sorry your roses were hit by the deer. But I had to smile at
this, at least there's some consolation, you're not alone. If you can't have
blooms then neither should your neighbors!
Julie

I guess the upside is that dead heading is a breeze.

elfa

On 8 Jul 2003 10:38:25 -0700, elfa wrote:



I'm in the city limits but the city limits include lots of undeveloped open
space with lots of wild life. Being only 1/4 mile from hills loaded with wild
oak trees etc, we get everything from deer to possum to skunk to racoon. What
was left of my roses got hammered again last night and so did my neighbors.


Well it sounds pretty out there, anyway. You know, I have heard of men
sort of, erm, "marking" the edges of the garden with er, um, urine,
have you? Although, it seems human scent would be all over our gardens
without this extra measure. Might be a better solution than that gaggy
rotten egg stuff. I do not like to hurl, and I am afraid the idea of
putting a well rotted egg in a blender is enough to gag me.




elfa








elfa

In article m,
says...

On 8 Jul 2003 10:38:25 -0700, elfa wrote:



I'm in the city limits but the city limits include lots of undeveloped open
space with lots of wild life. Being only 1/4 mile from hills loaded with wild
oak trees etc, we get everything from deer to possum to skunk to racoon. What
was left of my roses got hammered again last night and so did my neighbors.


Well it sounds pretty out there, anyway. You know, I have heard of men
sort of, erm, "marking" the edges of the garden with er, um, urine,
have you? Although, it seems human scent would be all over our gardens
without this extra measure. Might be a better solution than that gaggy
rotten egg stuff. I do not like to hurl, and I am afraid the idea of
putting a well rotted egg in a blender is enough to gag me.

Not sure about the pee idea as I haven't seen that mentioned in my Google
search. It could have merit. A friend down the street says years ago she
planted some kind of garlic in her rose garden and it worked to keep the deer
away. She says she neglected to keep the garlic trimmed and it 'took over the
garden' so she stopped doing it. I guess I'm committed to the garlic idea.

Three weeks ago, I got a cutting from one of her roses....'Peace' and started
the propagation process. The deer didn't get these because they're in the back
yard that's gated.

What it looked like when I started:

http://web.newsguy.com/paperbag/Imag...nda_peace2.JPG

Now only 3 weeks later, I've got about 2 inches of new growth.

http://web.newsguy.com/paperbag/Imag...nda_peace6.JPG

http://web.newsguy.com/paperbag/Imag...nda_peace8.JPG

What's weird is that I've got the growth before I have roots showing. I'm sure
they're there, I just can't see them thru the clear plastic. For me that's
really unusual as I get roots way before any serious growth.

I've reached the point were I don't buy roses anymore. I just 'steal and plant'.
I did 14 last summer as a trial. Got 12 to grow. This summer I got 5
going....so far.

elfa





elfa








elfa