Pacific coast bulbs deer don't favour?
Jane McGary (Fri, 20 May 2005 16:45:25 PDT)

Diane Whitehead asked,

I can certainly comment from recent experience; there's a herd of 5 deer
hanging out here, and I no longer have a dog I can trust loose -- only the
fence-leaping youngster remains, the old fellow having just died of cancer.
And that experience is all bad: deer eat brodiaeas, triteleias,
calochortus, and fritillarias with great appetite. They even stick their
nasty heads into the bulb frames and nip off the flowering stems.

However, they seem NOT to eat Camassia, which Diane didn't mention, but
it's quite ornamental, and they've also ignored Dichelostemma capitatum
(though they eat D. ida-maia). The latter is growing among some alliums,
though.

Planting palatable bulbs among unpalatable plants seems to help them
survive deer attacks, and so I've left a lot of volunteer foxgloves around
my lilies this year. I can't understand why the deer don't eat the ACRES of
fresh grass and shrubs on my property, and instead head straight for the
bulbs and roses. The latter must have some special nutritional value they
crave.

Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon, USA