Garden

[Twins Mom]

After over 20 years the deer have chosen my roses over the hosta plants. Uhhh! Not one rose to cut. Does spraying with Irish Spring soap suds help? How about cayenne pepper? Much to my surprise, those deer DO EAT roses. They seem to prefer tea over knockout in my garden.

[JustJazzmom]

Funny you mention deer preferring tea over knock out roses to eat. A few of us who own knock outs have noticed that the aphids do not gravitate to them either. Maybe it's something in the chemical makeup of knock out roses that makes them less edible?

[mousiegirl]

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@twins mom wrote:
After over 20 years the deer have chosen my roses over the hosta plants. Uhhh! Not one rose to cut. Does spraying with Irish Spring soap suds help? How about cayenne pepper? Much to my surprise, those deer DO EAT roses. They seem to prefer tea over knockout in my garden.

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@Twins Mom  Surrounding them with wire cages so the deer can't get to them is the only idea I have.   Try google, there is probably lots of information re this issue.

[JustJazzmom]

Those cages would be very tall so they couldn't lean in and nibble.

[gardenman]

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@JustJazzmom wrote:

Those cages would be very tall so they couldn't lean in and nibble.

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They'd also need to be very well anchored as deer (especially bucks) are strong animals and can come equipped with antlers to move things out of their way.

Trying to fight Mother Nature is typically a losing battle. A hungry deer is a powerful and resourceful foe. Keeping it from food is not an easy fight.