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What's cutting off my purple coneflower at the stem?
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Posted by
junky22 WA (
My Page) on
Sun, Jun 13, 10 at 19:13
A 3 year old purple coneflower plant is being destroyed by something cutting it off at the stem about 1-2 inches off the ground. I have not found the plant laying around, so maybe it took it to build a nest. But anyone know what is doing this?
This is the 3rd plant (the other 2 were at our beach house over an hour away) that this has happened to. Help! |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: What's cutting off my purple coneflower at the stem?
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- Posted by whaas 5a Milwaukee (My Page) on
Sun, Jun 13, 10 at 20:51
| Rabbits at my down to the ground earlier this year. |
RE: What's cutting off my purple coneflower at the stem?
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RE: What's cutting off my purple coneflower at the stem?
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| Number one enemy of purple coneflowers is groundhogs. |
RE: What's cutting off my purple coneflower at the stem?
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| I can't imagine rabbits being an issue this time of year anymore -- they're typically a pest earlier on with young shoots emerging. My Echinacea are 3-4' in height and about to bloom. Maybe you've got different rabbits out there. ;) I'd bet on something else -- maybe the groundhogs, but I don't know. |
RE: What's cutting off my purple coneflower at the stem?
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| "The other 2 were at our beach house over an hour away" Were the coneflowers in bloom? Could it be a human is cutting off your pretty coneflowers? Cameron |
RE: What's cutting off my purple coneflower at the stem?
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| Deer will eat young Echinacea, here anyway. Don't know what side of WA you're on, but on the west side, Mountain Beaver will cut plants at the base and drag them off to their burrows. Mountain Beaver are only found on the west coast. One year when I lived there, I watched a MB clear my yard of a large patch of dandelions(just the greens). It kept coming back until they were gone. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Mountain Beaver info
RE: What's cutting off my purple coneflower at the stem?
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Rabbits have almost entirely consumed my Echinicaea 'Magnus', while in bloom. There are only two stems with flowers, remaining to be eaten.
Normally, they don't hop up onto any Echinacea potted up in clay pots, but I've seen them actually do it on occasion.
They did so, until that one was nothing but stubs & it never re-grew...
I've heard that some people resort to misting the leaves of susceptible (& particularly the expensive) plants with hot sauce, to deter them. |
RE: What's cutting off my purple coneflower at the stem?
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| I got a chuckle when I saw the heading on this thread. It reminded me of a mystery I had with my coneflowers about 5 years ago. Mine were in the front of my house and they were budding up. I was watching them every day waiting for the first one to open. I started finding buds missing. The plant would start producing more buds to make up for it and as they would get bigger and taller, they would suddenly go missing. I was wracking my brain trying to figure out what was happening to it and it suddenly occurred to me that it could be human. I tried to think of everyone who had come to the house and the buds were missing daily. I think I was finding them lying on the ground. I had an AHA moment one day, that the only person visiting us daily, was the mailman. He was coming early in the morning, so the next day I got up early and waited for him to arrive. I watched the truck pull up outside and he got out and started walking to the front door and I could see his face close enough to see that he was distracted. His mind was on something else and he absentmindedly, reached out as he passed the coneflowers and flicked a bud off a stem. I was so excited to have solved the mystery! lol I opened the door as he got to it and kidded him about the 16 coneflower buds I was missing. For a minute he didn't know what I was talking about and then it dawned on him. He apologized profusely and we had a huge crop of coneflower that year from all the pruning. [g] |
RE: What's cutting off my purple coneflower at the stem?
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- Posted by sue36 Z5 Maine (My Page) on
Mon, Jun 14, 10 at 17:39
| The same thing happened to me last year and I blamed the woodchucks/groundhogs. I don't believe it was deer because the hosta (aka "deer candy") nearby were untouched. We don't have rabbits. So far it hasn't happened this year. |
RE: What's cutting off my purple coneflower at the stem?
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- Posted by whaas 5a Milwaukee (My Page) on
Mon, Jun 14, 10 at 20:37
| As someone else mentioned above, rabbits will eat these plants at anytime of the year...at least here they do. The little buggers visit my yard every freaking day and like to eat asters, geraniums, roses and willows as well during the growing season...they are much more destructive in the winter as they basically eat anything except barberry. My yellow lab helps keeps them at bay to a point but I am researching rifles. |
RE: What's cutting off my purple coneflower at the stem?
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| Yep, must be the darn groundhogs if you have them. The exact same thing happened to my lovely "Fragrant Angel" coneflowers. |
RE: What's cutting off my purple coneflower at the stem?
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| I think the bunny is the problem! There is a bunny (actually 2 at one time, not sure where the other one went) and I watched in horror as he ate my BIG pea pod plant off at the stem. I thought he was munching leaves, so I was going to share...but NO! He destroyed 3 plants. I wrapped the bottom of the few that were left in big pieces of foil and that seemed to stop him. So I'm assuming he ate the cone flowers. I also found slugs on the leaves, so I baited for slugs. I don't know why they never ate them before, but its been a LONG WET spring in the Pac NW, so there must be more than ever. Thanks every one! |
RE: What's cutting off my purple coneflower at the stem?
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| Prairiemoon..did you ever find out why the mailman was nipping off your coneflowers? |
RE: What's cutting off my purple coneflower at the stem?
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| I just asked my neighbor about this because I planted 2 coneflowers the other day and all the flowers are missing...the whole flower from about and inch from the top. Now I just have all these bare stems sticking up! She said there are bunnies around eating some of her flowers too. She's out in her garden all day and she sees them. |
RE: What's cutting off my purple coneflower at the stem?
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| Maybe her mailman really hates coneflowers. lol Karen |
RE: What's cutting off my purple coneflower at the stem?
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| So interesting to read this thread. I, too, have been having a problem with disappearing coneflowers, and it didn't dawn on me until last night that it could be the bunnies. There are two that have taken up residence in our gardens. I hadn't seen them eat anything until last night. Husband and I were hanging around in the front yard and we spotted one, so we were being quiet and watching. We saw him (her?) rise up on hind legs and reach up to pull down a stem of Ironweed. Like someone above, I thought the bunny was just going to munch a few leaves, but before I knew it the bunny had a whole stem in her hands. Aha! I had several Green Jewel coneflowers in another garden, and all mysteriously disappeared this year. The remaining coneflowers in that bed occasionally have broken stems. Sometimes the broken off stem is lying on the ground, sometimes it's nowhere to be found. It's got to be the bunnies! |
RE: What's cutting off my purple coneflower at the stem?
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| Yes, someone's been nibbling on my plants. Recently, at first, I thought my coreopsis wasn't growing very quickly, then I notice its growth was reversing. Recently, the cone flower got chewed up. It is not the mailman, who never gets out of his car when he delivers the mail :-). My suspicion is the rabbits. I have seen a few in the area, they seemed more likely suspect than the squirrels. My neighbor reported that they have been eating through the barks on his bushes. I have started spraying the flowering plants with repellent. Paul |
RE: What's cutting off my purple coneflower at the stem?
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| I walked out the front door and found my echinacea blossoms shredded on the porch and railing of my porch...Do squirrels eat echinacea? We have black, grey and brown squirrels in our neighborhood...we also have rabbits, but they have never been on the top of the railings of my porch. |
RE: What's cutting off my purple coneflower at the stem?
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- Posted by dbarron Z6/7 (Oklahoma) (My Page) on
Wed, Jul 16, 14 at 11:38
| With me, I never could collect Echinacea seeds, because the goldfinches would descend in swarms and eat the green seeds before they matured. |
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