Hi from Oz, Here in Oz rabbits are a pest. Landholders have a requirement to keep numbers down. For instance one doe in a year can produce over 800 offspring. Have you any idea how much plant material 800 rabbits can eat? 1 DSE or dry sheep eqivalent is the food needed per hectare per sheep ,well 8-10 rabbits equals 1 sheep. Not to mention the destruction caused by the warrens. I personally would not endorse the use of a slingshot- what happens if you only maim the animal? and it dies a slow lingering death. No here in Oz the options would be Snare, Gun, Ferret, hunting dog, netting, CO (exhaust fumes hosed down a warren with all openings sealed), or traps. In USA i expect that shooting is not possible neither ferreting, dogs ,netting nor C0. So that leaves snaring , which is an excellent way of capturing & disposing of troublesome pests. A well placed snare that is checked 2-3 times a day ,maybe in a hole in a fence could just be the go. Failing that a live catch trap would be more humane if not as tasty. Remember relocate if thats what you do with bugsy at least 5 miles away to prevent him hopping back. Incidentally to keep rabbit numbers low you need to remove 85% of offspring. A slow cooked stew with wild rabbit is excellent- very little fat and plenty of protein. Also rabbit droppings make excellent manure or compost (at a cost to your plants)

Not aster yellows. The damage is physical in nature; possibly even from frost bitten leaf buds. IronBelly

I have a yellow lab that will chase them out of the yard when present...but they eat the plants at times of the day/night that I'm not around/sleeping. The fothergillas are already fenced in with chicken wire. I put down rabbit scram around the Hydrangeas but sounds like I don't need to worry about them getting eaten anyhow. I want to keep them at 3' tall...label says 3'-5'...too new to find out where exactly they end up in my area. So if they are 5', then the rabbits might be doing me a favor. If I could only train them to eat these and my spireas. I should say I am thankful for the hawk's nest in my backyard...I bet she is scooping up those bassards.

Thank you, thank you, all! Well, one thing that gardening has taught me is how much it means to have a community of gardening friends. I was completely heart-broken yesterday but now much more hopeful and encouraged after reading all your advice and support. Ugh, I have a lot of landscape cloth that we use to cover plants when frost hits in late spring and could have wrapped some yesterday, but didn't even think about it. I'll surely try it for the rest of the winter season because the ground is frozen and it's too late for caging now. I will also try fencing the entire area but I'm still not sure how they get in from my neighbor's yard because the gaps between the wood fencing are very narrow though it's clear from the tracks that they get in from there. So I still need to cage each rose but will also fence the beds and borders for winter. That's a great idea about leaves and I always have plenty. Just this year I gave away some 20-30 bags of leaves. Next time I'll keep them for protection. I'm thinking to perhaps fill in the caged area with some too... I am always for the humane treatment of animals, pests included, and completely understand the concern about the discomfort that pepper can leave on bunnies, but I just can't let this happen again and there is so much snow around that just licking it can hopefully give them the relief from this temporary discomfort. It's really just to teach them that this is not an area for having yet another feasting banquet as they did two nights ago. I might alternate between chili pepper/petroleum jelly, following Christopher's recipe, and shredded Ivory soap that was also kindly recommended. And as the final touch, I'll use the best deterrent of all (credits go to Virginia! :-)). On the cage or leaf bag next to each rose I'll stick different rabbit recipes, starting with Brunswick stew (though myself I've never had any and do adore bunnies, but not when they eat my roses).