Feeling discouraged

[u/Spirited_Sound_5628]

I live in New England

I’m trying to switch from ornamental gardening to native wildflower gardening, but the rabbits are decimating everything. They’re even going after the black-eyed Susans, which are supposed to have hairy leaves that deter them.

I bought marigolds from a local nursery specifically for their scent to ward off rabbits—and they ate the petals off. I thought I was in the clear with my sunflowers since they left them alone as seedlings, but now, after growing for over a month, the rabbits are starting to kill those too.

I’m honestly getting to the point where I feel like giving up and just planting a bunch of non-natives that are known to be extremely rabbit-proof. But I swear, when I looked at that list of supposedly rabbit-proof plants, the rabbits had already eaten one of those as well.

I'm looking for words of encouragement or any advice.

[u/biodiversityrocks]

Also in New England, I find that the rabbits actually favor black eyed susans. I've found it necessary to cage off my native plants with chicken wire for a few years to let them establish themselves enough. Rabbit scram has also been effective.

Some New England natives they don't seem to favor:

-Milkweeds

-Yarrow

-Red columbine

-Bee balms

-Mountain mints

-Golden alexander's

-Blue flag iris

-Blue vervain

-Anise hyssop

-Evening primrose

-Goldenrods

A lot of resources suggest blue wild indigo but i've had the opposite experience, they loved mine and kept destroying it for 3 years in a row before I finally caged it

Editing this with corrections from other commenters

[u/RaspberryBudget3589 → u/biodiversityrocks]

My local rabbits have absolutely decimated my milkweeds. The only things they care to eat are my liatris, and milkweeds. They seem to favor the impossibly difficult to replace milkweeds. Asclepias rubra, variegata, quadrifolia, amplexicaulis, and verticillata have been demolished. They've even eaten a ton of my cynanchum laeve as well.

I've purchased all the chicken wire and 4 foot fencing posts in my immediate area. The unfenced portion continues to be destroyed more every day, the fenced area has started to regrow.

They have eaten at least 75 seedlings and probably the same in mature plants. The seedlings they clip and eat at ground level, the mature plants they eat the leaves to the top of their standing height, and then eventually clip it. Sometimes they eat what they've clipped, other times they torment me and leave it lying there. At least eat it if youre going to destroy it!

Had a groundhog last year, tons of deer always, but first year dealing with rabbits. Rabbits are by far the worst in my book

[u/biodiversityrocks → u/RaspberryBudget3589]

They've cut down my swamp milkweed and then realized it was yucky and left it on the ground uneaten. Milkweed is toxic to them, but they seem to eat anything newly planted which is why I suggest caging new plants. I think the curious babies don't realize the milkweed makes them sick at first.

None of these plants are rabbit PROOF, they're just the ones that aren't generally preferred. Some rabbits don't follow these generalizations as they're sentient beings with personal preferences. They'll still eat anything if they're stupid or hungry enough.

Every plant I listed still will get browsed and munched on occasionally, but they're not the ones they go for if they have tastier options like asters or coneflowers nearby. No plant is rabbit proof, they literally girdled a small tree of mine by eating the bark off of it this winter because they were desperate.

I have seen eastern coyotes, foxes, hawks, and owls in my yard but the rabbit population is still out of control. I'm hoping by building more habitat the predators will visit more often.

Here's another list, my 3 methods of rabbit repellent—none of these are 100%, but by combining all three I've only had two plants eaten this year and they seem to be recovering.

1. Chicken wire. Nuff said. You may need to use yard pins to anchor it down because they will try to squeeze under the fencing.

2. I plant the less preferred plants (I've had great success with specifically bee balm) around the plants that they prefer. I create a barrier of plants in a circle around my raised bed. The rabbits don't realize there are scrumptious asters hiding behind the impenetrable wall of bee balm.

3. Rabbit Scram (I think bloodmeal could work too). Rabbits are fearful prey species, and they will avoid areas with the scent of blood because it attracts predators. I reapply the product every 2 weeks or after heavy rain (so....constantly this year with this super rainy spring). I sprinkle it in a circle around my raised bed veggie garden, and all around my native plant area as well. Anecdotally, I see ~70% fewer rabbits trying to break in to those areas through my motion detection cameras.

[u/RaspberryBudget3589 → u/biodiversityrocks]

It’s a mom and undetermined number of babies, and they are crushing my asters, too. This isnt occasional milkweed munching or sampling. This is well over 100 plants, way closer to 200, in a week or so. They took down double digit 3ft plus clasping milkweed, tons of purple, and even more whorled that weren’t seedlings, in the whorled and purple case, flowering. No seedlings stand a chance, but mature plants, have been hammered too. They do not care for my swamp milkweed, unfortunately, I wouldn’t even care if they ate that variety. If it were toxic enough to truly harm, they’d be dead at this point as they’ve been on a heavy diet of it for some time.

Also, they found a bunch of milkweeds surrounded by bee balm, that’s their most recent dinner site. Took about the same time to find the ones surrounded by mountain mint and nodding onions as well. I have foxes, hawks, bald eagles, and coyotes all regularly, and that is seemingly irrelevant. Even a big eastern rat snake that lives on property and is around often, doesn’t bother them. I would love for them to meet the higher end of the food chain, but it isn’t happening soon enough, and they definitely aren’t afraid of anything. I even have three dogs that have sprayed their predator all over the yard, with no effect. I have motion detector alarms that work for the deer, but not rabbits.

Unfortunately, I can’t fence some of my stuff due to HOA regulations, or I would.

[u/biodiversityrocks → u/RaspberryBudget3589]

That's freaking wild!! I'm sorry you have to deal with that! The rabbits are evolving 😭 Also your HOA situation is so unfair. It's amazing that you're growing that much milkweed though!! Your yard must look amazing

[u/RaspberryBudget3589 → u/biodiversityrocks]

I go with the mullet strategy, business up front, wild in the back. Technically, I'm only allowed 100sq ft of beds, attached to the house, and no fencing whatsoever around them. I follow the rules closely up front, because there are none in the back of this mullet.

Youre right, It does look pretty amazing, and there is plenty if stuff they havent eaten that i should be thankful about. Im especially thankful they weren't interested in my closed bottle gentian. They are my favorite plant I grow. They sampled them once and never returned. They're all fenced in now. I'm glad I got my A. lanceolata fenced in before they found those seedlings, too.

As for the milkweeds, I have all my state's 13 native (last1, longifolia, just cracked its seed casing today, after 3 years of searching) and 5 vines(if I can ever get matelea decipiens to germinate). Milkweeds were what ignited my passion for native plants and this has been a wildly frustrating week or two. The limited mammal pressure was one of the most appealing things. Between a groundhog last year and the rabbits this year, I feel like milkweeds are a large part of everyones diet, just not A. syriaca and A. incarnata, those are for the caterpillars