Do you have any rabbits in the neighborhood?
Mine are always chomped off every spring by these hoppers.
I wish they would stay cute away from my spring bulbs.
That reminds me; I need to spread blood meal around the sprouts pronto!

Honestly, I've never seen one bunny, BUT - with the way I described it to my mom, she said the same thing. RABBITS !!

So, my question is - why are they picking on just one type of tulip leaf? Some sprouted WAY before these, still all green & lush and not one nibble. Then others came up after these. Same thing. Still beautiful and untouched. But they're giving this one area a fit.

They are all in the same small garden, just in three different spots. But these ARE a different type of tulip than the other two areas. What's the deal?

Do you think the fact that since birdseed falls down inside the growth, it makes them more yummy?? Do bunnies even like birdseed? That might be a naive question, but I'm no critter expert :) (PS - moved feeders last night :)

DOES THE BLOODMEAL DETER THEM ???

tks !! bonnie aka brit5467

Based on what my pet rabbit likes to eat, I'd say bunnies would like birdseed.

Well then....that all makes sense now. Even tho I must have 'stealth' bunnies (since I have never, ever seen one), the fact that the seed was all down inside each of the sprouting leaves, that must by why they picked THOSE particular ones.

Tks guys !!
bonnie aka brit5467

I find the rabbits in my yard consistently like some tulip varieties more than others. And I don't have birdseed!

Blood meal does deter rabbits and squirrels. I use it around new shoots every spring. Great fertilizer too. :-)

GREAT !! Gotta get some !! I love my couple of squirrels but they do tromp thru my garden and I don't really want them doing so while new growth is coming up so this will help with that as well.

Thanks so much !!

I usually don't see them either. When summer comes, maybe, but for now, they are "Stealth wabbits". Once you have buds the rabbits will get even more aggressive.

Blood meal is easy to find, luckily. Walmart, all the home improvement stores. It seems to be the same price everywhere: about $5 for a box.

I had a group of coyotes in my yard most of the winter: I'm hoping they got lots of them, or have scared them off by their scent. My kitty can't go outside anymore. I have heard that if you brush the cat, put the cat fur in the yard too.

I can say with certainty that it isn't a cat.... slugs mow my tulip leaves down as they emerge. I had a lot of damage on my iris reticulatas this year too and my daylilies all have chewed tips.

Well....I DO have the slug problem on my hostas, but this isn't from them. Always know by the shiny 'slime' trails.

Nooo, this seems to be more of what others have been saying. The "stealth" bunnies.

BUT - I'll tell you a trick I learned somewhere. If you have access to gum-balls (can't even say what kind of tree they come off of)...I was told to create a circle around my hosta plants as they sprouted. The slugs don't like the prickly parts. And as they grew last year, I just expanded the circle of gum-balls around the leaves so they could not crawl up onto them. It worked GREAT. So I guess it would work with anything else???

Just an idea. Don't know about other plants but seems it should work for anything??

bonnie

I saw a squirrel run with what looked like a piece of bread in his mouth. I stalked him. He ran half-way up a tree and stopped. That was no piece of bread in his mouth, that was a tulip head! I had seen three other tulips with their heads snipped off cleanly...and other tulip plants had been carefully shredded. If there is any doubt about it, squirrels DO eat tulip heads! Blood meal be my revenge!

Wow!! This is crazy. This is my old post from 2010 but what's even more crazy is....I saw the same thing. Was on phone talking to Mom and said,
"Hmmm, I didn't know squirrels like bread. There's one running across the street with bread in his mouth." And he ran up a tree.

NOW I know it was not bread. And he had just come from direction of my garden. Little boogers...lol.

Bonnie

I used to have hundreds of tulips and never a problem...now I’ve moved and only took a dozen or so bulbs with me but between the rabbits and squirrels I’m lucky to see any flower start and then they ge eaten too!! I want to put a stop to this, I miss my spring flowers!

Did the blood meal work for you?

I’ve also heard of using hot pepper (cyan etc) or to surround with daffodils and alliums as the critters don’t like those plants.

Probably not a cat and be very cautious about tulips in the house btw. The gooey stuff inside tulips stalks/leaves is extremely toxic to cats. (As in fatal.) Cats leave them alone but indoor cats seeking green stuff will go for them!