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Daffodils: D is for Deer Proof

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Daffodils: D is for Deer Proof

Deer proof is a designation that I usually find laughable. I suspect that given the chance, deer would dine on blue tarps and roof shingles. If these beasts had thumbs, my refrigerator door would have a lock on it. But there is one plant, one flower in the field that is unequivocally ignored by this antlered entourage: the daffodil.

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Daffodils are a spring-blooming bulb that’s planted in the fall. Ice Follies is the variety shown above, and a happy harbinger of the longer days and short-sleeve weather to come.2010_03_05_blog_daffodil_closeup

What’s great about daffodils:

  1. Deer-proof foliage and flowers
  2. Easy to grow: plant and ignore
  3. Naturalizers: the bulbs spread and multiply each season
  4. long-lasting cut flowers
  5. Some are fragrant
  6. Bulbs are relatively inexpensive and available each fall
  7. Daffodils come in a great variety of color, form and blossom type

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Now if you’re wondering if spring’s other big bloomer, the tulip is deer proof, I’d have to say no; the T in tulip is for Tasty.

Tulips in bud are here today,

before_deer.jpg

…and gone tomorrow.

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So if the possibility of such garden heartbreak lurks in your neck of the woods, plant daffodils instead and laugh in the direction of those doe-eyed denizens.

What I was blogging about one year ago: Boz and Gracie Are Real Cards, Alright

9 COMMENTS

  1. DEER! I once broke my back planting bags of bulbs and saw three flowers and a lot of mowed down stems. I wish I knew about daffodils when I had the property to plant flowers.

  2. Which reminds me Renae, when growing daffodils, don’t remove any leaves until they have turned brown and died back. After flowering, the daffodil uses its leaves to feed the bulb for next year’s blooms.

  3. that sir is an excellent question. though i worry more about the effects of little boys. thanks for the link. btw i’m ordering more prairie grass and wild flower seeds no evidence of results from the fall planting.

  4. Fortunately, deer are not a problem for us… yet, altho’ we have seen them as close as 5 blocks away. What I need is a suggestion on what to do to keep rabbits from eating EVERYTHING in our yard! I suppose they’d love daffodils.

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