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What has eaten my verbena bonariensis flower heads overnight ?

susieb74susieb74 Posts: 10
in Problem solving
Hope someone can shed some light on this please…. flower heads completely stripped, never happened in all the years I’ve had them ?
Thanks for any help
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Posts

  • ErgatesErgates Posts: 2,953
    Do you have deer visiting your garden? I’ve had the flowers eaten by roe deer here.
  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 24,043
    Roe deer did that at my house in France and Muntjac did it at OH's house in Norfolk. Caught in the act.
    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
  • susieb74susieb74 Posts: 10
    No.. no deer… only rabbits and no damage to surrounding plants. No slug/snail trails anywhere that I can see either !  

  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    Where are your plants located @sue.breeze74? Are they near boundaries?
    I'm wondering if it's 'human' intervention if you don't have deer. 
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • susieb74susieb74 Posts: 10
    Yes, near boundary, but definitely not a neighbour, although they are very cleanly removed ! each separate little flower head i.e. not removed at the main stalk.  I’m wondering now if it could have happened during daytime and I didn’t notice till the morning after because there are a few flower heads still on.  Out in the dark last night, no sign of slugs/snails coming for leftovers ! Very strange…. 
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    It won't be slugs/snails. If it was, I'd never be able to grow them   :)
    Very odd. The only thing you can do, if there's no other likely wildlife, is to set up a camera. That's easy if you have one already though!
    I'm not aware of anything that particularly targets them. Mice could be a possibility, but again, I've not heard of anyone having a problem with them eating flowers. I have mice all the time in the garden, but they only eat the bird food in the cages as they can access those easily  :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • susieb74susieb74 Posts: 10
    Yes we have a camera, but unfortunately there’s a tree in the way :(   I’ll just have to be really vigilant from now on and see if I can catch sight of anything. 
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    How very thoughtless of the tree @sue.breeze74  :D
    It's very annoying if you can't see anything obvious though. Do you get kids going past that might be tempted to nip flowers off?
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • susieb74susieb74 Posts: 10
      :D  No…. no access to back garden, secured mainly by high hedges. 
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    It's certainly a puzzle. Hope you can find out what's happened. It might be something that's able to reach and access them from the hedging, if it's near enough.
    Maybe try some in a different part of the garden and see if that works better.  :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
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