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primdawg

An informal study of recovery rate after deer strike.

Annette Holbrook(z7a)
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago

Around 3 weeks ago I made the grievous error of forgetting to arm our deer deterrence sprinkler one night. Even though I keep my hostas sprayed regularly with a variety of deer sprays, apparently my newly planted hostas were too much to resist. The deer got every hosta that I’d just planted as well as a number of my established plants. The only ones they didn’t get were those in a bed that was blocked by a line of empty clay pots I had set out to fill the next day. They ate every plant down to just stems or stems and maybe 2-3 leaves. I didn’t take pics at the time as I was so bummed I couldn’t bear to withness the devestation. But now that time has passed and they are trying to recover, I find it interesting to see which varieties are coming back quickly. Here are some pics 3+ weeks post massacre.

First is Fire Island which has made a miraculous recovery, this was literally just stems!



Like Fire Island, Red Dragon has made a miraculous recovery, it had maybe 3-4 full leaves left.


Next is Rainbows End on right, Hans on left. I’m really impressed with Rainbows End as it had only one partial leaf left. Hans is oddly coming back but at least 6-8 inches closer to RE than it was, so I’m guessing the original plant didnt make it and this is a shoot of some sort that survived.


Rainforest Sunrise is doing pretty well, it was one of the few that had at least 3-4 leaves survive.


Holar Garnet Crown on left and Appletini on right. Both were nothing but stems.


Afteglow has put up one new leaf.


Marshmallow Sky giving a good try.


Bottom Line has yet to try from what I can see.


Wu LaLa has 2 little leaves trying.


This is a noid blue. It had a few leaves left and is starting to recover.


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