Deer

[treemandan]

I started a thread in the 101 section about indentifing a holly but in reality its not the ID part of my conumdrum, its finding a holly that the deer won't eat.

" But deer don't eat holly" they say. OK, yeah, right , sure they don't.

I was talking to Evan who own a rather large network of nurseries and who is also a very cool guy about things; He had sold ( from one of his farms) a quantity of white spruce to Vallet Forge Park. They wanted something the deer would not eat.
The deer by his farm,which is 20 miles from VF, did not eat the trees and they are said to be " deer resistant" BUT they sure as Hell eat them up when they were planted in the park.

I think its pretty interesting and since I am now trying to get something together for a client I have to be sure I cover the bases. I mean, how would it look after I spend 3K of the guy's money and the deer eat it?

So its not really the plant, its the deer and the only thing you can do is fight... or maybe just buy the deer some deer food because the only time they eat holly is when there is nothing else to eat.

 

[pdqdl]

Plant a bunch of hellebore around it for landscaping, then tell him to keep the deer away from it.

 

[treemandan]

Plant a bunch of hellebore around it for landscaping, then tell him to keep the deer away from it.

What is that? Hellebore?

I was wondering if there is a plant that will repel deer that can be used in landscape. Every other deterent is time consuming to apply or just ugly.

 

[pdqdl]

They don't exactly repel deer, it's just that they don't eat them, either. They have really early flowers, too. Like...mid-winter in moderate climes.

Deer tend to avoid noisy, wind driven "action" lawn ornaments, so you might suggest that, too.

Firearms and dogs are the best repellent I know of.

 

[wampum]

Dan if those deer in the park are eating spruce,its because there is not much else available. I have been told by the game commission that deer have starved to death with a full belly of spruce or pine. There is very little nutrients in spruce or pine.

The herd at the park is extremely over populated and are probably eating that holy and spruce for lack of any thing else. Here are 2 articles about it :

Valley Forge's Deer Management Solution Not a Crowd Pleaser - Guns.com

Valley Forge National Historical Park - White-tailed Deer Management (U.S. National Park Service)