Chrysler Imperial, planted this spring, very happy.

I'm not an assiduous forum follower, but I must say I'm getting the impression that you are pretty cool, deerssteve. I like your photos,I like your internet name ,and am getting the impression that you have a highly lovable, non-"girly" attitude to those dasterdly. darling deer! My own garden is in a woods, so I myself know only too well that the only way to garden is to protect the plants with physical boundaries. This year I'm having problems with some boring boorish boar who has decided that my garden is his territory and he keeps on finding every little fault in my fence so he can dig under and come in and make a mess...cheers, bart

Steve, I love your sense of humor. I must say the deer look very content, no stress there. However, it looks as though you've had to go to some trouble to keep your roses safe. A huge blessing of my dry environment is that the deer can't make a living here.

Ingrid

I love your posts too, Steve. It looks like you and the deer have achieved a somewhat happy medium, and your CI looks great.

I've lived at this house for 29 years. I never had any experience with deer. There were a few unprotected mature rose bushes when I moved in and I planted 200 more over the next 3 years. It was good for a while until my yard became a deer magnet. I lost everything except climbers and taller mature OGR. 3 Years ago, I did a test with La Reine Victoria which the deer managed to prune but not kill over 20 years. I used deer repellant successfully for a season and that encourage me to plant 3 HT. The deer got interested again and the repellant didn't work. I made free standing cages which did work and added 5 this year, also caged. The deer were sneaky and wary, but over the last few years they are fearless and come to my yard to take a nap. I get roses now and "wildlife" photos.

...and good karma that you are spreading out to us ! Thank you,best wishes, bart

As a scooter rider, I don't want to see any deer on the road, had a couple of close calls while riding, they crashed into cars and motorcycles/scooters all the time. Steve, grow more roses, they can just stay in your yard, won't go on the roads. :-) Hope the hunters can get more of them this year, we have too many here...... Cheers

Deer are smart and they must feel safe to be coming around and taking naps lol. I wonder if you put out some corn for them if they would leave your roses alone but then you would be encouraging them even more. Deer season is getting closer so you might have more visitors to your "safe" haven.

Look at them just taking it easy. I'm glad you have some blooms to enjoy. Maybe consider a Madame Alfred C. That rose grows so fast and blooms so much, the deer could never keep up with it.

Steve where are you located that you have such a great bunch of friends that love your yard?

I live in Lafayette, CA (SF bay area) about a mile from downtown. Lafayette is east of the Berkeley hills. The neighborhood is made up of relatively large lots and heavily wooded with oak trees. I haven't a trick or treater for over 20 years. There's a dry creek bed running through the neighborhood that is used by the deer to move around without dealing with traffic. Once I had a deer run into my car. Neither car or deer were injured.

Know Berkley well --just didn't realize there was such a deer population

"The Friends of the Berkeley Rose Garden has been very active over the past decade in restoring key historical features and improving accessibility to the garden. Working in partnership with City gardeners, the Friends continue to play a key role in improvements to the garden. The construction of a new entry and overlook on Euclid Avenue sparked new interest in the park. In response to the growing depletion of roses by hungry deer, a perimeter fence was erected in the late 1990s."