Junipers may just be the toughest, most sustainable and varied group of plants there is, bar none, and I particularly love the J. chinensis or "Hollywood" juniper, shown on the left in its first season (soon after I excitedly announced that I’d brought one home.)
So maybe I can be excused my expletive-filled reaction to the news that in the winter, deer apparently love junipers, too, as you can see from the after-deer photo on the right. But what’s a gardener to do with the remains?
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WOW! The damned deers aren’t so dear. It looks like one of those fancy topiary my more wealthy friends place on either side of their front door during the holidays.
How about you plant two more immediately next to this one and braid their main bodies together?
Have you had in luck with that hot pepper wax sprinkled all over your plants? Perhaps next year you can defend more aggressively.
I’ve found the deer have been eating shrubs in my garden that they have ignored for years. They’ve damaged traditional ‘deer-resistant’ shrubs like leucothoe and abelia. I’m not sure what’s going on but am hoping now that the snow cover is gone they’ll leave my shrubs alone.
I do believe that the only sane reaction when gardening with deer is to use explitives and for those of us who are not adverse to eating game… thoughts cross our mind. My mother has *deer.* I however, only have squirrels and rabbits so far.
Cosmetically speaking, I’d take it down to waist high and let it resprout from that point. The character of this plant is to grow unrestrained and unshaped to achieve the graceful branching that makes them so cool. Can you put a cage around it for a season? 4 stakes, wood braced with a couple of horizontal lath, then wrap in chicken wire. Not too pretty but it might give the plant a headstart for this year.
Oh, wow. I have heard rumors of the deer liking Hollywood Juniper, but that’s really sad. I bet they won’t eat it when it’s taller and the foliage hardens off more – can you cage it until then?
It looks to me like a deer rub. Male deer rub their antlers on small tree trunks during the winter. They do it to sharpen the antlers, leave their scent, rub off the soft velvetity coating, and practice their fighting techniques.
I agree with Pam’s comment – in addition to eating this juniper, it looks to me like the males have decided to use the leading stem to “polish” their antlers. My mother , who lives in a dense wooded area of Connecticut, gave up on trying to grow this particular type of juniper over 30 years ago because of these same problems, so this is not surprising to me. I suggest either ripping it out and gifting it to a friend with a deer free garden, or you’ll need to fence it in using deer fencing. – Eric
My experience in gardening with deer is that they will eat anything if it’s where they routinely go. I had roses in my garden for over 10 years then they started to look smaller and smaller; it took me a while to notice that they were being pruned by the ear.
Yes, the junipers are eaten here because they’re on the edge of the driveway. The only plants they definitely do not eat in our garden is Artemisia, lavender and Agastache-(anise hyssop), which I absolutely love anyway so I let it seed itself all over.
They leave iris alone sometimes, and in some places. I am trying to grow Oakleaf hydrangea and will try the cage technique. I garden in upstate NY, zone 6.
I need to find out what everyone’s doing in gardening with deer; I need to garden and refuse to give up!
I garden in Canada and we have a product called “Deer away” by :Have a Heart”. It really works. In Spring when perennials are just coming up I surround the garden with an electric fence and just before bloom time spray everything with Deer Away . Then I take down the fence . The nice thing about this product is you don’t have to re apply it.
I’ve seen years where the deer will eat the lavender in late winter during snow melt. Lavender seems to do alright with that natural pruning. I’ve seen deer eat just about anything. I have a spreading native juniper that I need to prune that has survived the deer for fifty years with the help of protection (electric fences, screening ,or netting) This winter they ripped the cover off and began to browse from the crown of the shrub toward the tips. They ate 50% of the shrub. How would I prune it ? Do I take off the dead wood left by the deer or do I prune the tips in hopes that it would branch out in the areas that were so badly damaged.? Any ideas? I need to save this shrub.
I work in a garden with Rhododendron that get eaten regularly but always manage to sprout back. What we do is cut back the bitten ends cleanly; all dead branches are cut.
I believe this will work for your juniper. It is slow growing so it will take a while to grow back but it will.
Next time you net it make sure you pin the net down with tent stakes or something strong that will not give. I also use bamboo stakes to hold the net away from the green.
That looks like more the result of male deers rubbing their antlers than of deers eating the leaves. The product called Deer Off has worked well for us. You just spray on the trees. It keeps the deer off but it does not harm the trees
You think that's bad – you should see what out local landscape maintenance types do to Hollywood Junipers – this is where the term 'poodle tree' comes from!!
“Hungry deer will eat anything. You should spray a repellent on the plants. I use havahart’s deer off. I use it because it’s the only truly organic repellent there is. It’s the only one with the OMRI logo on the label. The label says it lasts for 3 months, so I barely have to apply it.
Here’s the repellent I use:
http://www.deeroff.com/advantage“