oh no!!!! It looks like they had a nice meal :(

How heartbreaking! I don't think I could deal with that, either.

Steve -- What are you spraying on your roses as a repellent?

I contacted the manufacturer to get more information.
I was using premixed material (not fresh) and spraying lightly.
It's trial and error and what I was doing was working, now it isn't. I haven't given up. I would like to have a few hybrid teas. There' a rose show coming up in a few weeks and was looking forward to getting 2 or 3 more roses.

Fence.

A friend in local deer country nets all her roses with chicken wire. It looks terrible to me but it's the only way for her. The pressure is not quite as strong in my city garden so repellants works fairly well, both blood meal and commercial sprays and the latest, birch tar imported from Finland. I was sorry to see a fox killed on the road today and was afraid it might have been our own dear fox. I had set great hopes that it would kill some of this year's kids.

Marianne in Sweden

I'm using liquid fence, deer and rabbit repellant.

The best place to grow roses is my front yard and a fence would be an eyesore (according to my wife).

At one time I created a cutting garden in the far back yard out of sight from the rest of the yard..
I put in poles, strung line and hung deer netting using shower curtain rings. There wasn't enough sun to get the flowers I wanted.

I'd rather hang the deer.

Oh, I can't imagine. Rotten deer! So many wasted blooms. :(
Carol

Steve, I don't know where you live, but I'm imagining, considering the deer pressure, it's some place like the SF Penninsula area (Hillsborough, San Mateo, Palo Alto, etc.). If it's any comfort to you, the mountain lions are coming back strong there. I work as a consulting biologist in that vicinity and several times this past year I have personally come upon fresh mountain lion deer kills (like the lion is no doubt watching me), essentially right in town. Colleagues have experienced the same. Problem may soon be solved. :-)

Debbie

That's a terrible shame, Steve. A good high, sturdy fence is really the surest way.

Debbie,

I live in Lafayette and am waiting for the mountain lion migration. My neighborhood is heavily wooded and there's a creek bed that runs through it. The deer use it for commuting. I had a deer run into my car once. No damage to the deer or the car. They are fearless. I walk up to them and say to them "can I help you" like I'm a Walmart greeter.

I have 15 bushes including 5 climbers that are scattered around the yard that the deer don't bother much. My actual rose garden which went from 2 to 5 bushes is their buffet.
I can spray the 5 bushes every day with repellant if it works.

The other 100 bushes I planted over 20 years ago are long gone. I tried bloodmeal, milorgonite and hot pepper spray and had limited sucess. I had about three years where I could enjoy my roses and then the deer discovered my yard as the place to dine.

There's always the second half to catch up. Deer didn't win yet. The whole season is still ahead and your roses can grow. Sorry to hear about your buds. That's hard to take. I'm wishing you lots of new growth and bigger plants while you find a way to outsmart them.

Ah, Lafayette, all those great woods, and the deer not only know you've got great roses, you're a nice guy, too. (Should mention that the deer in San Mateo are as you describe. The biologists are on a first-name basis with them.)

Down here in Livermore, I had a young mountain lion actually spend the day snoozing under some shrubs in my back yard in October 2011. Continued on his way after dark (my cats were not amused). I live in the middle of a 1970's development and have 1/3 an acre, so it's not exactly wilderness, but a mountain lion pushes through every three years or so, usually to get from wilder areas south of town to wilder areas north of town. They are headed your way, too, I hope.

There were three does who wreaked havoc when we first moved in 11 years ago (and put up a deer fence), but I haven't seen any deer the past few years -- whether because of lions or another layer of development south of town, I don't know.

In Berkeley I see deer protection around roses even on lots in the dead center of town. Those deer must be really casual and friendly!

Debbie

This post was edited by catspa on Sat, Apr 27, 13 at 22:05

I meant to ask, also, if you've tried one of those motion-sensor-sprinkler thingies? I'm seriously considering one for the blasted raccoons. Of course, they might then think the free showers are part of the amenities. Sigh.

Debbie

I am so sorry Steve, that has to be beyond frustrating.

Maybe you can explain to the wife how much you enjoy the roses but the deer require a fence. And take a drive to find fences she likes or can deal with. Maybe adding a wide border on the outside of the fence will soften the look for the wife and if you fill it with plants that deer don't like maybe they will move on. Plants like rosemary, lavender, society garlic, some salvias, fox glove and I am sure others are on lists that claim deer do not like (note they are mostly rather strong smelling plants so that might be a key)

Hopefully she understands that compromising will benefit both of you.

Choose not to believe it if you want, but spreading relatively inexpensive Milorganite seems to be working pretty well as a deer repellent in my garden on the East End of LI. After a heavy rain I just spread some more around the roses and the perimeter of the property. The roses love the stuff and the deer(which there is no shortage of here) don't. Some just find the sludge stink to be a little offensive is all. Including the deer.

Would green nylon net fabric from the fabric store, draped over tbe actual bushes like bird netting on fruit trees, be a possibility? The stuff is cheap and wide and inconspicuous if you use green. Just a thought, offered out of sympathy...

Steve,
I had 85, mostly hybrid teas, about 12 years ago, and a herd of deer came through one night and ate every bush to the ground.
I too was using various repellents
I got so pissed I dug them all up and threw them away.
Last spring I got the urge for roses again.
My neighbor and I put up a 8' wire feet and I now have 20 roses.
I think fencing is the only way to go.

and electric fencing at that-----or an effing great big catapult.

That's awful, sorry Steve. The deer usually hit me in the spring. This year they have chewed on Mr. Lincoln, Redout and Reines de Violette. Some nice fat buds too. It's been so rainy here, I can't really use Deer Off (which usually works well). So I have to just wait it out. Luckily I have many roses and there aren't that many deer here.

I think a post and wire fence is the way to go. It would be almost invisible from a few feet away but would keep the deer out. I couldn't so that because I live in a subsidivision with HOA rules. But I do have a fenced in backyard. But most of my roses are in the front. At least my veggies are in the back and protected from the deer.

Steve, I'm so sorry. Electric fences are pretty cheap and you can put strands as high or as low as you want. Do you think that might work?

Repellents are not going to work indefinitely, especially once deer figure out how good the roses taste. A fence is the only lasting solution. Trust me, I know.

Do you have an open area around your rose bed? A friend of mine has real good luck using bird netting (the real light weight, inexpensive plastic mesh that you drape over fruit trees). What he does is lays it on the ground like carpet all around his roses & the deer will not walk on it.

wirosarian:

I used that mesh to act as a fence to keep out deer. I had
some scraps and layed a 6 foot square patch on the ground around Olympiad. That might be big enough when the rose is small so it will be a test. I can get more and cover the bed. Two of the bushes are too close to the pavement for this to work.

I've heard of this method before with the mesh slightly elevated.

Trospero,

How high is that fence of yours? The whitetail deer in my area are hardly intimidated by fences. They jump 'em in one fell swoop, their voracious consumption to continue -- unfazed, unimpeded, unstoppable.

Steve, Link below with accolades about motion sensor sprinklers, though, as yet, I have no personal experience (thinking about it for raccoons messing up my pond). I had luck with fences against deer with my sloping topography (if deer can't see a decent landing spot, they generally won't go for it) , but much depends on the lay of your land (and pocket book, and aesthetics, etc.).

I'm rooting for you (blasted varmints!)

Debbie

Here is a link that might be useful: motion sensor sprinkler thread

Debbie,

The roses are too close to the house.

I figured out what might have happened. I have some russeleana planted in the backyard that got severely munched. Not the plants growing out of the abelia. The deer also got the one bud of another rose growing out of the abelia the abelia and continued on to the rose garden. Mini feeding frenzy. Those plants weren't sprayed.

Maybe the deer that are most common east of the Mississippi are more agile than those in the West. Here, if the intent is to use ordinary fencing to protect against deer damage, it's recommended that the fence be at least 6 ft tall, preferably taller.

For a number of years now, farmers and other rural residents in this area have constructed anti-deer fences that slant at a 45 degree angle. It's a design that's effective because, while deer can jump quite high and can jump considerable distances, they're apparently unable to execute jumps that simultaneously attain height AND cover distance.

I'm linking to a WVU release on slanted fences with specs for building one. Obviously, slanted fences aren't a practical solution for most, but they're interesting as an example of the extreme measures taken by some to control an ongoing problem.

Here is a link that might be useful: Slanted Fences

@Jax: if the deer are jumping your fence, then its not tall enough. Here, it is the general rule that fencing must be 8 feet high or more, and so I added a foot and went for 9. It has been 100% effective for over a decade.

I am so sorry. I love to get out there and see mine every morning and can't imagine what I would feel like to see that. Someone mentioned a motion activated sprinkler and that made me wonder if motion activated flood lights might scare them. Don't know much about deer... they might not care

First I used to use cayenne powder bought in 5# quantity from restaurant supply stores but must reapply after every rain (daily at times). It was too time consuming and wind gets it in nose, mouth, and burns skin. Thus I put up deer fence which is near invisible - the cheapest most readily available is online. I leave enough space at ends to enter to work, not wide enough for deer.

Special plastic fence posts are available at Lowe's under $3 each (needed a lot) and spray painted them dull green since they only came in white. No other choice after 3 years of deer clear-cutting plants. We live on a wooded ravine next to a lake.

New subdivisions going up everywhere caused them to move here and I've seen packs of 14 in our yard multiple times a day.

Now they don't come except at night since nothing worth eating is available but my plants look great!

This is an old topic. Shortly after posting this. I made cages for each bush and then added more roses the next year, all caged. I have 9 modern roses and the OG roses and climbers from 25 years ago. The cages are removable and effective.

I've heard deer won't jump over anything they can't see over, so a solid privacy fence should work.

Time for some venison!

Oh I remember this! Glad it's all in the past. You've had some beautiful roses since then.