I feel your pain.......I finally put up a fence, as disgust is but a nice word for how I felt.
The biggest problem is they don't read the list of things they aren't supposed to eat either!

Flora

Oh no. I didn't think they much liked the pods!

That is terrible! So sorry!

kay

I am so sorry to hear that. I am having a deer problem for the first time in 13 year - don't ask me where they are coming from because I live in a highly developed area. However they have not touched the "pods" yet. Dam Deer!

Oh no, I'm so sorry. Don't you know they were probably waiting in the rain for the deer off to wash away. I've seen an occasional deer sign here, I was even weeding one day when one ran right by me in the middle of the day. Fortunately, I've never seemed to have any real problem. They seem to get the tulips in the spring, but I don't have many of those. I do have a totally useless dog, but they probably don't take chances, thank goodness :)

Too bad and if I had any seeds, I'd share with you.

Julia

Well, since we did the electric fencing, the deer have pretty much stayed away from those areas. I do feel for you, it is terrible to lose flowers and seed pods if you hybridize. I read an article a few weeks ago that said a landscaper was putting in "deer resistant" plants and the deer came along behind her and ate the Black and Blue Salvia that she put in. This is a scary thought, for I have never seen any deer damage on our blue salvias here. Maybe they aren't that desperate yet. The thing is, no one knows what they are going to eat from one day to the next. Avedon

During this drought, deer eat anything that might have water in it.The darn things ate up all of my st. Augustine grass that was thick in my back yard, even pulled it up and ate it.And I been told for years that they wont eat grass.I am sure they didnt find water in my grass as I do not water grass.

jeaan

My sincere condolences. I feel your pain. Seriously.

We've been fighting the deer here for years, and I've had to slowly migrate most of the garden plants over to deer resistant ones. I've resisted giving up on the daylilies, though this summer I gave up on trying to spray the daylilies that aren't in the small fenced (and protected) side yard. I was having to spray twice a week to get even minimal protection (and this was having tried all sorts of sprays, including Deer Out). It just got to be too much.

And yes, deer do love and eat the pods. What they won't do, though, is try to eat any pods covered with aluminum foil. (I don't remember where I read that trick, but it does work. But first, your flowers have to have survived long enough to be able to produce pods.)

DH (neither a daylily person nor a gardener) has finally realized just how bad things are (and how frustrated I've been), and has agreed to look into deer fencing. Our yard has some challenges though (backside neighbors on a hillside where the deer leap down from - we may not be able to erect a fence there), and a creek running through the middle of the back yard. So we'll have to see if we can fence any part of it (besides the side yard which has permanent wrought iron fencing, not the plastic mesh deer fencing that we are looking at). At this point, I'd be grateful just to fence the "easy" third to half of it, as I could at least see bloom on more daylilies and be able to grow a few more roses.

As for reports of deer eating things they aren't supposed to... I've read that and know that it can be true. We do seem to have some tried-and-true perennials here which include Asteriscus (Gold Coin), Salvias (mostly Salvia greggii but also pineapple sage and Salvia microphylla), Bidens, Stachys, lavenders, bearded iris, Dahlias, Iberis, Shasta daisies, Lantana, Penstemons, Argyranthemum, Euphorbias, various grasses (including Miscanthus, Pennisetums, Calamagrostis), Heuchera, Scaveolas, certain Verbenas, Scabiosas, and ferns, and daffodils for early spring. (Unfortunately some of those plants have to be caged against gophers, who we are also constantly battling.) For shrubs, we have a lot of shade and so Azaleas and Loropetalums do well, as do Euonymous and box.

One thing that I've thought about but haven't tried, is to sort of "enclose" some daylilies with a border of box. The idea would be to make the enclosure small enough that the deer won't jump into it, but the daylilies would have to be set far enough back that the deer can't lean over the box to nip the blooms and buds. Such a scheme might work where there isn't heavy deer pressure (though it may not make for the most lovely garden, and you wouldn't be able to enjoy the blooms up close and personal).

THanks everyone... it is disappointing to have them chomp everything to the ground. But the great thing about gardening is... there's always next year!

Alexa

Ive used a variety of products here.. Ive strung up string, deer fencing ect ect.. every year its a battle.

However, I got the little pods this year filled with a synthetic type of coyote urine smell, it really worked well for 3 months, but apparently its starting to wear off, so I put up my motion sensor, light/radio things as well.

Other items ive seen work is egg spray, just throw some eggs in your sprayer and spray a few times a month, its much cheaper then deer off honestly. HOWEVER do not overspray, do not spray in heat.. it really fades blooms.

My problem is I cant totally enclose my space as there is a road that runs through and the deer have learned they can walk down my driveway.

I pine for the days that my friend tells me he would call the game warden and the warden would say "you know what to do" a few shots later and the walking rats would be dead.

But hes past 80 now, so that kind of tells you how long ago that way.

Silverkelt

I do enjoy venison. hmmm Paula

BEAT up one egg really good and pour it in a gallon of water, add a few drops of tobasco sauce to it and spray what ever you dont want the deer to eat and it works for a good 2 weeks, some times longer, if it dont rain and wash it off., and it has never faded my blooms.I didnt respray for over a month, since no rain fell, and the deer finally came along and seen scapes stuck up with buds on them, and they ate all the buds, didnt touch the daylily, just ate the buds.

jean

The deer eat any and all of the buds, pods, and foliage here, depending on what is available. They prefer the flower buds above all else, but they have eaten the foliage down to about two inches when there have been no buds available. The entire plant has to be sprayed.

And here (and where deer pressure is heavy), you can expect to have to spray twice a week (and that's without any rain), and the deer will still nibble. :/

Where there is heavy predation, nothing but fencing (and tall fencing) will work. Dahlias are hardly deer resistant!

"Dahlias are hardly deer resistant!"

Really?

Here the deer go after a great many plants, but I've had dahlias for at least a few years and they totally ignore them. (The gophers, on the other hand... grrr.)

Maybe it has to do with what part of the country you are in? I'm in northern CA, so we have Mule deer (and/or Black tailed Deer... apparently one is a mutation or descended from the other, but it is not clear which came first). I've read that Mule deer and White tailed deer (in the eastern part of the country) have different dietary/feeding habits.

What drives me wild (apart from the daylily devastation) is that the deer like to eat the flowers and buds on the Pelargoniums! I can't understand that... I would have thought that the foliage smell would have turned them off (it turns me off!), but apparently not.

While dahlias here aren't a favorite of deer, I've had them eaten a number of times, and only the use of repellant has prevented further damage. I've also had peony shoots eaten in the spring. It seems as though the deer haven't read the list of what they aren't supposed to bother.

I agree that different plants are deer resistant in various parts of the country. The deer regularly eat my azaleas, but this year along with the daylily pods they have also eaten my Anaheim peppers, coneflowers and even a potted begonia! I think it is the young ones that ravage anything they can get to and the older ones seems to be more discerning.

I do use the egg/hot pepper/garlic mix regularly, but we have had so many overnight thunderstorms it seems to wash off and they chomp everything just before daybreak. Sigh.

Thanks again for all the suggestions!

Alexa

Sure wish a thunderstorm would come here, well at least rain, dont want no storm.

jean