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What's done this - mice?
borgadr
Posts: 718
My rudbeckia look like they've nearly all been dead-headed. But I haven't touched them!
This hasn't happened all of a sudden, but rather gradually over the last 6-8 weeks.
Initially when it was just a few, I thought maybe snails or slugs had eaten through the stalks. But the seed heads are not sitting on the soil, they've been taken away somewhere.
Squirrels do this to my sunflowers- they remove the seed heads and eat them somewhere else in the garden (I've caught them in the act, and found seedheads 20 metres from the plants). But I don't think rudbeckias could take the weight of squirrels - they'd have bent over.
Could field mice do this? I have a family of field mice living in my compost heap at the other end of the garden.
Or rats even? (Maybe rats are too heavy? And I never see any in the garden)
This hasn't happened all of a sudden, but rather gradually over the last 6-8 weeks.
Initially when it was just a few, I thought maybe snails or slugs had eaten through the stalks. But the seed heads are not sitting on the soil, they've been taken away somewhere.
Squirrels do this to my sunflowers- they remove the seed heads and eat them somewhere else in the garden (I've caught them in the act, and found seedheads 20 metres from the plants). But I don't think rudbeckias could take the weight of squirrels - they'd have bent over.
Could field mice do this? I have a family of field mice living in my compost heap at the other end of the garden.
Or rats even? (Maybe rats are too heavy? And I never see any in the garden)
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If it's not mice, anyone have an idea what might make a clean cut like this (other than a human holding a gardening tool)?
I'm certain no-one's cut these. You can't reach the middle ones to deadhead with secateurs anyway (I know because I have a drift of cosmos nearby, and it's very difficult to reach some of them to deadhead). You could reach them with shears, but then the stalks would all be the same height, which they're not (and the seedheads would be around the base of the plants, which they're not).
Mice, voles, squirrels and birds all may eat seedheads. But not if they were still in flower.
If you have a family of fieldmice nearby, it's a possibility. The heads do look as though they've been cleanly cut, and fieldmice are very lightweight, and tidy.
All you can do is wait until next year, then set up a camera. Or follow the tracks. Any mice droppings nearby?
About 3' and below is their grazing height, anything much taller tends to be safe. They are particularly neat and tidy 'cuts' and it looks as though somebody has taken a pair of shears and dead headed all the stems.
If it's muntjac there wil probably be some droppings somewhere. They look a bit like rabbit droppings (like black currants) but usually stuck together in clumps.