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Mid-Atlantic Gardening

rhododendrons, mountain laurels

18 years ago

This past week the deer ate all the rhododendrons and mountain laurels I planted last year nearly to the ground. They were small plants--1-2 gallon pots--because I didn't want to disturb the roots of the 50-70 foot Canadian Hemlocks shading them. But there was lots of new growth, which I took as a sign they were becoming well established.

What's the deal? I thought rhododendron and kalmia were supposed to be poisonous. I mean, Kalmia augustifolia can't be nicknamed "Lambkill" for nothing.

I had surrounded all my baby conifers with electric wire fencing because I knew those would be on the menu. Do I need to build similar barriers around the poisonous plants as well?

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Comments (5)

sam_md
18 years ago
There is a toxin in Kalmias called andromedotoxin. It has been known to poison domestic livestock. Not sure about the effect on deer, probably none.
When deer are numerous enough they will eat just about anything. Fencing seems to be the answer for some of us.
Sam
karen_b
18 years ago
We have resorted to feeding the deer corn, my thoughts are if I feed them corn they are more likely "not" to eat most of the shrubs/plants I've been planting. So far so good, except it looks like the hydrangeas have been hit...but not completely...yet. I've also used the tomatoe cages I made from concrete mess as winter protection for several other shrubs just happen to run out when it came to protecting the hydrangeas. Next year I'm starting with the hydrangeas to give them a better start next year.

Deer will be an ongoing battle in my experience I've found it is better to live with them then to try to fight them...not worth it. So every spring I loose most of my hostas, I just cut them back and fertilize and they return.
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Deer pruning often results in a nice bushy plant. Except when they go after arborvitae, they turn those into lollipops, eating what they can reach and leaving the tops. Rhodies often sprout from what looks like totally bare brown wood. They're very good about sprouting from wherever you happen to want to cut them back to, like a boxwood, and unlike a lot of other woody plants. Around here people routinely take a too-tall monster rhodie and cut it down to the ground almost to rejuvenate it. They usually will resprout from the stump. A bit extreme but it should give you hope. Some species and varieties are naturally leggy, like our native rhodies here in the PNW are naturally leggy. Part of that is whether they're 1yr or 2 yr or 3 yr rhodies - how long they hold an individual leaf before dropping it. Each species and variety is either a 1 or 2 or 3 yr type. The wild rhodies I see growing in the mountains appear to be 2 yr rhodies which tends to leave them bare at the bases. Also they drop the bottom leaves if they're in dry or lean soil, only so much water and nutrients to go around so they sacrifice the oldest leaves. Cool and cloudy is just what your rhodie wants if it's trying to replace lost leaves with a immature root ball! I think it'll be fine. Deer don't normally eat rhodies but there's always a dumb one that doesn't know any better, or a starving one that's desperate. It won't necessarily be repeated.
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wrighthouse
Original Author
18 years ago
I have been wondering about the effect of feeding the deer. I had planted the rhododendrons and laurels among the trunks of a line of large hemlocks on the back border of my yard. The neighbors on the other side do feed the deer. And since they don't seem to want to mess up their nice lawn, they tend to spread the corn on the property line, in the shade of my hemlocks. Last year I noticed that when the corn would be gone, the hooved locusts would move onto the pines and spruces I had planted to fill in some gaps in the hemlocks. So I built wire cages around and then hooked them up to an electric fence charger. That worked amazingly well. I guess I'll have to do the same with the "poisonous" understory plants as well.
Laurel7286
18 years ago
I vote against feeding deer. There have in fact been several tests by Ag Extension services in the Midwest that prove conclusively that feeding deer or providing salt licks, even when separated from the ornamentals by 100 yards, only succeeds in attracting more deer and increasing the damage to ornamentals.
winged_mammal
18 years ago
Rhodos and mt laurels are not deer's first choice. Look at all the native mt. laurels growing wild in MD in areas also infested with deer. If deer are really really hungry they will eat mt. laurel.

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