What small bulbs DON'T Squirrels like to eat?

Having been cleaning up the residue from my decimated, apparently very yummy crocus bulbs for weeks, I am wanting to plan to plant more bulbs that squirrels won't eat. They also have eaten all my camassia quamash.

I'm already planning on adding lots more daffodils/narcissus, but what about replacement small bulbs? Does anyone have good suggestions for me?

They haven't touched my anemone blanda in 5 years so that might be safe??

Hm, that sounds interesting-how similar are they to the Anenome coronaria? When do they bloom?

Light bulbs.

Dang squirrels.

Lol, yeah, got that right. Plugged in or not? ;) Seriously, I can't actually bring myself to hurt them, but oh, I'm SO frustrated with them!!

LOL lilmac. Good one. This is the only anemone that is hardy (marginally) in my area. It's not nearly as showy as anemone coronaria. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/167/

Oh, sure, I always get the anenomes mixed up. It IS cute, though.

I did just buy some Grape hyacinth. It's never been one of my favorites, so I haven't had any up unitl now. Maybe buying it as a sprouted plant will throw the squirrels off the trail, so to speak.

Ipheion, maybe. Perhaps it's that garlicy smell, but tree rats haven't bothered them.

Well, it is short enough that I won't have to smell it too much. Does it increase well for you?

Yes it does. I never smell it unless I crush the foliage for some reason...like stepping on it, lol! Beautiful blue.

Lol, sounds like me! I'll try some of those, too. Wonder if I can find some potted up someplace.

Mine are blooming at the moment, but if you can't find any, let me know. I'll hold my nose for you, lol!

LOL! thanks, I'll keep that in mind. :) Wonder if I could "fence" in some "yummy" bulbs with them as well.

Worth a try:-)

Take a look at the minature daffodils...they come in white, Lemon yellow and golden. They can bloom way earlier than the standards, and also way later... You really need Narcissus jonquilla and Narcissus rupicola. Fraaaaaaa-grant as all get out, but not the nasty paperwhite scent.

How close are you to Mitsch Novelty Daffodils? They are by Swan Island Dahlias near Hubbard, Oregon.

http://davesgarden.com/products/gwd/c/862/

Suzy

Good idea Suzy! Those minis are cute, too:-)

Hi Suzy!
Good idea!
I'm not too awfully far-close enough I could decide to go there, far enough that I have to go out of my way to go there, which is how far I should really be from all nurseries....

I've got a really cute short one that I lost the tag for. It's only about 6" tall and has what I think are jonquilla type blooms, three to a stem, that are only about an inch across. They're new to me this year, and now that I've seen them, I want more.....

(yuck-I agree-I don't like paperwhites' smell, either)

The jonquilla family (jonquil & rupicola) can be tall, maybe 12-14" for N. jonquilla and 6-8" for N. rupicola , but the stems are as thin as a piece of linguine. The flowers are small -- airy, delicate, and they usually have a very, very shallow cup.

The good thing about Mitsch is you don't get your bulbs when you see them in bloom. You have to wait for harvest, so you might as well wait and place your order in summer. The bad thing about Mitsch is they have every few cheap minis. Most are in the $20.00 a bulb range. LOL! Try B&B or a regular bulb house for these.

Suzy
P.S. It's pronounced roo - pick - uh - luh

Uh, $20 a bulb, huh? I don't think I'm in that league! I'll bet they're gorgeous, though!

I found my daff list. I think my tiny one is 'Minnow'.

They're different, but not $20.00 gorgeous. :))

The early ones all look more or less like this:
http://www.daffseek.org/query-detail.php?value1=Hummingbird&lastpage=1

The midseason ones look more ofr less like this:
http://www.daffseek.org/query-detail.php?value1=Angel%27s%20Whisper&lastpage=1

The late season ones look like this (this is a jonquil, Baby Moon, and one that is cheap):
http://www.daffseek.org/query-detail.php?value1=Baby%20Moon&lastpage=1

And here is one that is a show flower, more expensive than Baby Moon above. I's pretty sure it's a hybrid cross between rupicola and jonquilla.

http://www.daffseek.org/query-detail.php?value1=Pequenita&lastpage=12

Oh, they're darling! Ok, I'll add more baby daffodils, too. :)

Ohhh, the yellow and blue will be Martha-tastic, lol!

Martha-tastic.....hmmm......don't think the rest of the garden is up to her standards, lol! Guess I'd better buy more plants.... ;) Still, I like blue and yellow in early spring. This will look good. :)

susybell--squirrels don't seem to bother squills.. sounds cute, but its true.. or muscari....or snowdrops... at least not here. I have found, though, that what they eat changes and they seem to go on binges. Its as if one of them got a craving, and told all the others. I'm sprinkling capsicum on my crocuses- it works till it rains. also if you are looking for spring little- i loooove primroses.. not bulbs, but wonderful. sarah

Hi Sarah,

Good info, thanks! I don't have any squills yet. (lol, cute...) Or snowdrops. I'd been thinking about adding some last fall and forgot, so to hear that squirrels don't seem to care about those is good news! (Yeah, how do they tell each other this stuff, anyhow???)

I did buy a test pot of sprouted muscari- found a nice pale blue one called Ocean Music (or Ocean Magic? ) and planted them last week to see what would happen. They've dug around them but haven't dug them up or eaten them, so it's looking good for those as well. :) :)

I've mixed up a "homebrew" of blood meal, cayenne, and granulated garlic that I've sprinkled around things, and it does seem to help for a little while, but being in PNW, well, rain happens....

I think Brent & Becky have it figured out-send the fall bulb catalog out while you can SEE the holes in the garden and order the bulbs, so I've started marking it up with everyone's suggestions. :) :)

Yes- I've been looking at the B&B catalog too- and i'm sure i'll order way too much!! and then forget where the heck i'm supposed to put them all by fall.... In terms of planting with all those squirrels watching everything you do, it really seems that they have to check out where you just dug. And its really a problem in the fall sometimes, and they just dig everything up whether or not they want to eat the bulbs. I tamp the earth down well so it won't seem fluffy to them (they like fluffy..) and water well- they don't like mud and it erases some of the just planted look of things. I don't use any fertilizer with bonemeal in it because that smell seems to attract critters.. In the fall, I even go as far as sort of hiding the spot with leaves, which actually seems to trick them! Got to keep one step ahead! (sure, they're saying) Even crocuses if you get enough of them in there, they can't eat them all... !!

You could try wrapping the bulbs in chicken wire. This is a suggestion of some bulb websites. Also I read that after planting the bulbs the smell of freshly dug soil attracts the critters. So to lessen the smell cover the ground where you dug with old screens or plastic bird netting held down by rocks. After 2 weeks the soil smell will be less attractive to digging creatures. I like the mini daffodils and have had good luck getting some from B&B and John Scheepers. So check out both sources.

Oh, more good ideas!

I've tried camouflaging the digging with leaves-that seems to help, at least for a little while. I've also deliberately dug around other areas and left them fluffy without planting them to kind of fake the squirrels out, but that didn't throw 'em for long. I've had some miserable afternoons planting bulbs in the rain, but it does help with wetting the soil down as I plant.

Some of those critters are just too smart and have learned what the darned foliage for a crocus looks like. They suddenly discovered some that had made it almost to blooming and decimated about 10 all at once... :( :( :( That's getting too tall for a mesh screen, unless I make cones for everything (I have a few for lilies right now. Looks ridiculous-I told someone I may spray paint them and call it garden art...)

Another thing that I do that makes things worse is get impatient and start moving the mulch around to see if anything is still left, so that disturbs the ground even more... Sigh, you'd think that I'd learn and get more patient... :P

I'm trying giant bulb cages for a few of my lilies-I've got mole tunnels and have been concerned about voles, but squirrels seem to be the main culprit.

I used that plastic garden fence that looks like small-opening chicken wire. You buy it in a roll for $4-5.00. Mr. Clean put it on the bandsaw and made me 3 rolls, theyn I cut those to length, about 30" long +/-. I dug GIGANTIC holes and wrapped a 10" diameter cylinder inside it, then put in the bulb. It worked, as far as the squirrels, mioles, voles, mice, etc!!!! went, but the bulbs multiply and can't get past the fencing, so I have had to dig them up and replant. I can only do 1/2 dozen at a shot because it is tiring work and sort of depressing because I am redoing, not doing. It is just on the backburner of things that need to be done around the place...and I am doing the ones I love the most first and the rest, well, they'll either get done or they won't. I had only one bulb actually grow into the fencing and I had a LOT of scales of that one to propagate.

FWIW

Suzy

Suzy sounds like a good method you've used. You should take some photos. I am sure people would like to see what has worked for you.

Probably one advantage of the plastic netting is that unlike the chicken wire it won't rust or scratch you and is easier to work with?

Yeah, but if you're over 50, you might understand that once you dig a couple of 10" holes that are 10 inches deep, it's hard to get the energy to go back up to the house to get the darn camera. LOL!

This stuff is actual fencing, not netting. Heavy duty, and can sit up on its own and hold a circle. Maybe netting would be easier.

Suzy

susybell, this probably looks familiar... the hot pepper treatment is all i can think of for this, other than a cage around the whole thing!

I lay the plastic fencing over the bulbs after I put them in the ground cuz I don't have underground varmits. I use plastic cuz I think it will last longer than wire and it is really easy to work with.

Actually, I agree-there is something a little depressing about replanting things. The lily bulb cages we made are massive to allow the bulb to move deeper if it wants, or get nice and big and fat, but then I've got these rings of bulb cages showing-can't bury them or you won't know where they are, but then planing over or around the bulbs becomes a problem...(And I didn't much like the massive holes I had to dig, either). I am also worried about getting scratched by them-we folded the edges over to make it less sharp, but we'll see...

I would like to see the plastic fencing. I'll have to watch for it. I thought about usin gutter mesh, but it was only 6"-not high enough, and maybe too easy to bite through?

Sarah, yes, your picture is way too familiar, petals scattered everywhere :(

ya I was worried about scratches/infections from wire cuz I'm a klutz.

Here are some of my tricks:

The first one barely shows the fencing off to the top right -- a deep forest green. You will have to expand the photo because it doesn't show in the thumbnail. It comes in a 48" roll, and as I said Mr. Clean put it on the bandsaw to cut in thirds and make me 3 rolls.

You will also see my baby Lily seedlings -- they are in punnets, which is the real name for Strawberry baskets. What local strawberries are in at the store when you buy them. (not the plastic Driscoll's clamshells) I do this so I can keep the crosses separate.

This is a bulb box that Dutch bulbs are shipped in if you buy enough. You can buy these from Breant and Becky;s bulbs and they ahve 2 kinds -- shallow and deep. This is a deep one, and these are Lily seedlings of some kind or another. The area is a well-known run in my garden for varmints of all kinds, so I thought I'd try this...also keeps the crosses separate.

Suzy

Oh, very cool-thanks for the pictures! You mean the old fashioned green plastic strawberry square baskets, right? Kind of brittle?

I'll have to look around for that fencing. Is it fairly stiff, or pretty flexible?

Hm, there's another thing Neal (Gemini-Sage) can use his 27 new bulb crates for.....

That looks good-pretty discreet. How long do the lily seedlings stay in the trays?

Yes, those are the old fashioned strawberry baskets that are brittle. In the photo you can see those are all Martagon seedlings. They grow so slowly I dind't want to waste a lot of space on them. So, useless to you, unless you are planting Muscari or somehting that doesn't have to go down too far. I have also planted minature daffodils in them. Nobody eats miniature daffodils, but it's useful to keep one kind of bulb all together. I never miss any bulbs when I dig them.

The Martagons might bloom this year, so they've been in the punnets for 5 or 6 years, I guess. At this point, they have had lots of mulch on top of them and are probably a couple inches below the soil line. Inside of each wil be all the bulbs from a particular cross and that cross written on a piece of plastic with a paint pen, or maybe sharpie (it was a long time ago, and I've forgotten. I haven't looked at them in ages, as a matter of fact, but I did notice i had a couple really big Martagons there just the other day.)

NONE of these ideas covers the possibility of animals digging down, so to address that, I use a piece of that plastic fencing OVER the top of the fence or bulb box. It is already rolled, so I sort of hook the raw edges together. BUT the Lilies, esp the Orienpets from The Lily Garden have stems that are too big to go through those holes, so they have to come off. That's what that random piece of fencing in that photo is. Just the "lid". For the seedlings, it can stay in place for a long time, though. But as I mulch or add compost or whatever I do, the bulbs eventually get covered deeper and I don't have as much need for it. Rabbits (& deer, although I don't have them) are another story, and only that liquid fence is helping with the rabbits. I have underground varmints...ones that seem to attack from underneath. That's why I am using this.

The fence is very stiff. BUT it is already in a roll, so all you have to do is decide the diamter you want (nothing less than 6" for lilies!!!!!) and multiply by Pi (or 3) and that's the length you cut. I cut about 30 " and that gives me a 10" circle, more or less.

The bulb crates, and be sure to get the deep ones, will hold a lot of bulbs. A lot of us use them for tulips because we dig the tulips every summer and plant dahlias or annuals in their place. Then when the frost comes in fall, the dahlias come up, or the annuals die, and it's time ot put the tulips back in their places.

Everytime I dig, I try to improve the soil, so now I can just pull the tulips like weeds, but back in the day, we did the bulb crates...and I was a lot younger then, too. Now the thought of digging all those giant holes makes me want to rest and have a lemonade instead!

I can't think you seriously want to go to all this work, but if you do, good for you!

A lady I knew took an area and dug out 6" of soil and laid down hardware wire cloth. It comes in rolls and she must have had 6 rolls about 20 feet long rolled out. Then she took the sides and edges about 16" and formed them into a 90 degree angle to make a tray. (like a jelly roll pan) Then she improved the soil, and raised the bed 12" (thus 6" higher than the surrounding soil). Then she put bars -- 20' long steel flat bar shaped in a flat-U going across the top about 16" above ground. and chicken wire over everything. The object of the game was to put a black canvas cloth (bigger than a sailboat sail!!!) over everything in the winter. It was some sort of canvas that lasted decades, but also let water through. She literally put the bulbs to bed, then opened it up in the spring. If it got super cold again, she'd cover it all up. THIS AREA WAS GIGANTINC! and she was a tiny thing, and old, too. She kept the cover al nicely folded i the garage, but I had to move it once to get to somehting else and it weighed a TON! I have trouble changing the linens in a king size bed by myself and I have no idea how she was able to get this cover on and off. Anyway, it was always the most wonderful treasure chest of minature bulbs from all around the world you have ever seen. She grew things that aren't hardy in Indiana and also had a lot of miniature daffodil crosses of her own.

The rats w/fuzzy tails don't bother my Iris danfordiae, Iris reticulata, Muscari, Winter Aconite, Anemone blanda, Snowdrop, or Chionodoxa -- most of these I got from http://www.johnscheepers.com

I plan to try scilla next fall.

My crocuses and tulips are safe when I remember to sprinkle them with 'Deer Scram' every two weeks or so. The pic was taken about a month ago.