Dear Deer

Response to earlier article; readers wrote in with troubles they've had with deer that will eat anything, including deer resistant plants...

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  • Topic: Pests
  • Author: Cindy Bellinger
  • Keywords: deer, deer resistant, plants, pests, Pests, deerresistant
  • Date: August 2004

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Dear Deer,

Last week we published a list of plants you’re not supposed to eat. But Kathy Anderson of Colorado Springs says you guys ate her Perennial Geraniums, Daylilies and Sunflowers. “They aren’t following the rules!” she wailed.

And from other letters around the country it’s clear you deer guys haven’t read the list very carefully.

“Hollyhock and Daylily are deer favorites where I live,” says Jim Ross of Maryland. But Anita of Casper, Wyoming says you don’t eat her hollyhocks. So what gives?

In the Denver area Thomas says you love Echinacea. “Everyone I know who’s tried it say the deer chomp it to the ground—even this year, when there’s been plenty of green given our unusually wet summer.”

But again Anita says you don’t eat her Echinacea. Why is her garden so different?

David Hockman, who lives “at the end of the forest in Flagstaff,” says the deer and elk at his house prefer Gaillardia and Daylily. “They never touch any Santolina, which is not on your list,” he writes.

You can believe Santolina is now on that list, so take note.

Then Don Pierce of New Mexico said he planted two Kolkwitzia (Beauty Bush) plants and you deer have ignored them. You’ve left his Woods roses alone and have just barely sampled the Forsythia. Though a plant that you have ravaged is Burning Bush, a variety of Euonymous. “They stripped every leaf,” he said.

The only way he could keep you and your kind away was to put wire around them, and the leaves did grow back. So there.

Rudy in Ohio wrote in with, “They don’t eat a thing.” He said the best way to keep you guys out is with a pack of vicious dogs. See, people will do anything.

It’s too easy to let you guys off the hook by saying you must be very hungry. It’s more than that. You’re just being down right mean.

So we’re putting together a petition, issuing a proclamation and passing a law. From now on you deer will learn to read and you will be fined heavily if you’re caught without a copy of our deer resistant plant list in your hip pocket!

We also suggest you head for the hills where you belong, and look for more natural fare. And I love the fact that Anita reports you deer nip off the daffodil flowers but spit them out. Serves you right.