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Do rabbits eat violets?

17 years ago

Last year I tried a few things in a half sun/half shade area. Rabbits ate many of them: primrose, lamium, polemonium. This year I am trying violets. Hmmm....they seem a little weary already. Do rabbits eat violets?

Do you have suggestions in addition to cranesbill and daylilies for half sun that rabbits dislike?

Comments (7)

  • 17 years ago

    In my experience yes. I have a couple of violets in a shady nook and the rabbits eat them all the time. When I have time I spray them and the hosta with a water & egg mixture and that seems to stop them. The little buggers! I have not had any problems with rabbits eating Lady's Mantle, Heuchera, foxglove , bleeding heart, Hakone Grass or Columbines or Brunnera and all of these would grow in a part sun/part shade area.

  • 17 years ago

    I'm not sure but I do know they do eat violas and pansies...and also star flowers. Lol* Those hugry little buggers! :)

  • 17 years ago

    As said above, a big YES...LOL.

    If rabbits don't get them the groundhogs/deer will.

    They keep taking bites off the Columbine but don't like them so I find the little stems with leaves still attached in other parts of the yard. Either the same one(s) is lacking memory or there are so many of them everyone has to take a little bite to see if it's an acquired taste like deer groups do.

    Lamium, Foxglove, Lobelia Cardinalis, Heuchera, Hakone Grass, Dwarf Goatsbeard are things I have in long narrow bed that gets only midday sun once trees have leafed out. Along the back of the bed I have bulbs like Daffodils, etc. for spring bloom when it's getting full sun and some Alliums which bloom around June before other things are too large.

    Adding some Alchemilla Mollis & Salvia Coral Nymph this year. This Salvia is reported shade tolerant if it gets some sun so I'll try it.

    Hard to find things for shade with blooms that rabbits, deer and/or groundhogs don't eat. That still leaves the slugs but I just accept I have to spread unsightly pellets around things or they're going to be eaten.

    Violets, especially the native ones, are so pretty...but not where critters are just going to eat them. Hanging baskets, containers up on a deck or somewhere like that is the only somewhat safe place.

  • 17 years ago

    They don't eat the wild violets. Those things are nearly impossible to get rid of and they spread like wildfire.

    Rabbits over here ate the lamium too. I'm going to try some heuchera this year or next. DH is not going to be happy that I picked yet another thing that they eat. I'm mostly going to stick with the cranesbill and daylilies.

    I wish they would eat the foxglove, the little buggers.

  • 17 years ago

    Rabbits eat spruce and pine needles and twigs around here... so plant it anyways because they will eat anything and everything.

  • 17 years ago

    Last fall I planted three violets. The rabbits ate one of them so completely that I couldn't find any trace of it. The other two were sheared to the ground. They all seem to be coming back this spring though.

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