# flowers and deer



## kolbasz (Jun 7, 2017)

are there any ideas for flowers that deer do not like much?

I currently have 80% green everything, mostly because the deer leave them alone. I have a few lilacs and some other thingies with color, but I want to step up my game.

I have some beds I want to fill with flowers, but I also do not want them eaten by morning?

Or, is the only good answer in that case some liquid fence?


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## mmacejko (Jun 9, 2017)

Deer in Ohio eat everything. They even ate my yuccas one year! Flowers I've had luck with so far are:
Yarrow, coneflowers, dianthus, astilbe, black eye Susan, spirea, some blanket flowers, dwarf butterfly, salvia, and cat mint. Everything else I have I religiously spray with alternating Bobbex and liquid fence. Bobbex has worked pretty well for me the last two years. Good luck!


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## kolbasz (Jun 7, 2017)

Spirea, those are the things I have...


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## kolbasz (Jun 7, 2017)

Ended up with the following, have 2 of the same beds, one on each side of driveway.


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## mmacejko (Jun 9, 2017)

That should look real good in a few weeks! Nice job
Curious - where did you find the red blanket flower? Those will be nice!


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## kolbasz (Jun 7, 2017)

mmacejko said:


> That should look real good in a few weeks! Nice job
> Curious - where did you find the red blanket flower? Those will be nice!


thanks. Just need some of the things to stand up. The lady at the greenhouse said they were pulled down in the greenhouse during storage and should be fine.

I think the most difficult aspect of it all is understanding the spread of each. Knowing how much it might expand this year and each of the following. Guess I will wait and see, then come here for care advice.

As for the red blanket flower, just a local place. They had 3 of them. I just took your list of flowers and asked what they had. From there, I just got symmetrical numbers to balance each side of the drive.


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## mmacejko (Jun 9, 2017)

Sounds good. Just be aware one one of my blanket flowers survived the winter this year in Ohio. Might have been my fault because where I planted them they were in a pretty wet area of my flower bed.


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## kolbasz (Jun 7, 2017)

Yeah, these are all in a raised bed that seems to dry out pretty well, so we will see.

I have never bothered to care much about flowers, so this is a starting point for me. I need to up my landscape management game a bit.

My spireas are already out of control since I did not cut them back in the fall. Thought it got too late and cold in the season where it would be a bad idea, but I don't know.


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## mmacejko (Jun 9, 2017)

My grandfather always told me - if it blooms in early spring (lilac, viburnums, weigela) prune it after it flowers. If it blooms in summer (spirea, knockout roses) prune it in late winter or very early spring. So far that has worked well for me. Only problem is when you want to put down mulch but have to wait to prune...


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## kolbasz (Jun 7, 2017)

mmacejko said:


> My grandfather always told me - if it blooms in early spring (lilac, viburnums, weigela) prune it after it flowers. If it blooms in summer (spirea, knockout roses) prune it in late winter or very early spring. So far that has worked well for me. Only problem is when you want to put down mulch but have to wait to prune...


yes, I always do my boxwood's before mulch, did it after one year, black mulch, it was a disaster.


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