Asters are favorite bunny food. I have the same problem as you every time I plant them, they get munched as soon as they get so high in the Spring. Saying that, I've had one in the orchard (bronze foliage, white flower - don't know the name - sorry)grow and bloom two years in a row. Hooray! Except, this year. It got eaten off twice.

Last year, once I saw the asters were getting nibbled on, I used garlic powder to repel the bunnies, and they stayed away afterwards. This year I keep up with Liquid Fence (more for the deer) and they haven't touched the asters once. But even though they chomped on them last year, they still grew well. Maybe I caught it in time.

Many years ago in pure innocence I rescued a cottentail baby bunny from sure death from one of my cats. The rabbit survived and prospered for 7 years in a cage we maintained outside. In payback for my random act of animal kindness, the cat died and other rabbits, as if hearing it by telephone, invaded my small suburban plot and began eating everything in sight (roses included)....everything except for my Aster Oblongifolia Raydon's Favorite (mountain mint aster).... I have since employed another cat to do sentry duty, and after a few cold stiff rabbit bodies scattered around the yard in the early years, they have since left me alone (but not my neighbors). My cat now spends his nights inside(as all cats should) but his "bunny" legend lives on reinforced by his daily patrol and markings.

I gave up on asters for this reason. You could try putting a cage around it early in the season until it gets large enough. Or, as maryl said, get a cat.

I use Liquid Fence also and it keeps the rabbits away from most of the plants. For those that they really love, ground red pepper powder or fox urine sprinkled around the plants seems to work. Only problem with these is you have to refresh them after a rain. I got the fox urine in the hunting supplies section of my local discount store. WAY cheaper than the stuff they sell in the garden section. Also works great on the bulb beds in fall to keep the squirrels from digging things up.

Oddly enough, in the seven years that I've been growing it, rabbits have never even nibbled on my Monch's aster. My Centurea montana is a whole different story however.

My New England Asters were 3.5' tall. Some critter, assume it was rabbit now that I found out they can reach higher than I thought, pulled down the stems til they snapped and ate off the buds and top leaves. Since I've been successful "taping" snapped stems together it their still pretty attached I did that to NE Aster stems. Whoever was getting at them pulled them down again and ate off the rest of the foliage.

Assume I might just as well cut stems where they originally snapped them so whatever else grows this season will be strong.

Don't know if new side foliage growth would result in flowering but don't want to leave plant unnecessarily weakend.

Somehow I got it into my head that a native variety might be more resistant but that was fanciful thinking.

Maybe I'll try a couple Monch's aster if I can find it at local nursery to make sure I have some late season aster bloom for butterflies in that garden.

I think that perhaps you are correct Terrene as to why the rabbits didn't eat the A. Oblongifolius (the 'Raydon's Favorite' selection btw is blue). Our neighborhood rabbits start gathering for the feed at about 7:00 (CST)in early evening during the summer. I watched 3 the other day hopping single file about a yard apart from each other right next to the busy street. We are not in the country by any means so it just proves that rabbits are real urban suvivors. Since they feed mainly in the evening to early morning, and I don't allow my cat out at night (too dangerous), my cat must do the majority of his killing/chasing/guarding in the early dawn hours when we let him out. It didn't take long before the Rabbits steered clear. Before Yardley (our cat) put the fear of death into them permanently we had to construct movable barriers to protect my beds (wooden frames with wire mesh inserts), and for beds that couldn't be "framed" I did try some of the Liquid Fence. It worked perfectly, but in summer we have to water almost every day, so it was really going to be much too costly to maintain for any length of time.
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