{"id":7971,"date":"2015-09-24T12:00:28","date_gmt":"2015-09-24T16:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=7971"},"modified":"2015-08-24T18:30:01","modified_gmt":"2015-08-24T22:30:01","slug":"critter-resistant-flower-bulbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2015\/09\/24\/critter-resistant-flower-bulbs\/","title":{"rendered":"Critter-Resistant Flower Bulbs"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_7972\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/086.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7972\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-7972\" src=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/086-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"&quot;Deer Candy&quot; Tulips\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/086-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/086-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/086.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-7972\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#8220;Deer Candy&#8221; Tulips<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_7973\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/IMG_1917.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7973\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-7973\" src=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/IMG_1917-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Dependable Daffodils\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/IMG_1917-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/IMG_1917-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/IMG_1917.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-7973\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dependable Daffodils<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Who doesn\u2019t love colorful flowering bulbs in the early spring garden? Unfortunately, many gardens are terrorized by flower-devouring deer or bulb-chomping squirrels, voles and other critters. When utilizing smelly sprays, expensive fencing, or firearms are not options, plant a wide choice of flower bulbs that critters don\u2019t like.<\/p>\n<p>Start out with long-lived daffodils, also called narcissus. They come in so many varieties, small or large flowers, and in color choices ranging from yellow, white, orange, pink, or bi-colors. Deer and rodents won\u2019t eat them like tulips and most types of crocuses which are candy to them.<\/p>\n<p>Alliums, snowdrops (<em>Galanthus<\/em>), snowflakes (<em>Leucojum aestivum<\/em>), camassia, starflowers (<em>Ipheion<\/em>), glory-of-the-snow and blue squill are also critter-proof. Deer and rodents usually leave them alone. <em>Hyacinthoides<\/em>, <em>Scilla<\/em>, Grecian windflowers (<em>Anemone blanda<\/em>) are also good bets.<\/p>\n<p>Most bulbs naturalize and return to bloom for many years. Planted them in a sunny location and in well-drained soil. Encourage bulbs to naturalize by allowing the foliage to die back naturally after bloom. Do not cut back or braid foliage immediately after flowering. Leaves will store up food via photosynthesis in the new bulbs. Fertilize spring flowering bulbs in late winter with a slow-release fertilizer (Milorganite\u2122, Osmocote\u2122, or specially labelled bulb products).<\/p>\n<p>Certain bulbs such as snowdrop (<em>Galanthus<\/em>), scilla, winter aconite (Eranthis), and snowflakes (Leucojum) are highly shade tolerant. Bulbs emerge in late winter in open deciduous shade. They receive adequate sunlight through the open deciduous woodland canopy before new tree foliage emerges by mid-spring.<\/p>\n<p><u>Special situations<\/u>: In stressful environments when animals are starving, they\u2019ll eat almost any bulbous plant.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Best of The Critter Proof Bulbous Perennials<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ornamental onion (Allium)<\/p>\n<p>Camassia<\/p>\n<p>Glory of the snow (Chionodoxa).<\/p>\n<p>Colchicum (late summer and fall bloomer)<\/p>\n<p><em>Crocus tommasinianus<\/em> &#8211; Squirrel-proof only<\/p>\n<p>Fritillaria<\/p>\n<p>Snowdrop (<em>Galanthus nivalis<\/em>)<\/p>\n<p>Spanish bluebell (<em>Hyacinthoides hispanica<\/em>)<\/p>\n<p>Starflowers (Ipheion)<\/p>\n<p>Snowflake (Leucojum)<\/p>\n<p>Narcissus (Daffodil)<\/p>\n<p>Scilla<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Who doesn\u2019t love colorful flowering bulbs in the early spring garden? Unfortunately, many gardens are terrorized by flower-devouring deer or bulb-chomping squirrels, voles and other critters. When utilizing smelly sprays, expensive fencing, or firearms are not options, plant a wide choice of flower bulbs that critters don\u2019t like. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[444,1117,786,959,794,1065,1064,778,674,665,626,602,627,625,843,777,630,1072,705,785,1073,1063,861,957,455],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7971"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7971"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7974,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7971\/revisions\/7974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}