a better picture of cage.

Looks great!! But am I ever glad we don't have deer problems here!!!!
Carol with much sympathy

Lookin good!
I'm also grateful we do not have deer problems.
Gee the things you must go through...

That should do it! And, looks considerably better than the chicken-wire jobs I saw during restoration inspections last week.

I like the shower-hook anchor idea as it avoids the visual impact of stakes.

You are really doing battle with those deer! You may have lost a few of those battles, but I think you'll win the war. The deer are going to be so mad! I hope they don't attack the cages, lol!

Now that you have the cages, I hope your bushes will thrive.

Yep, I can relate on that Double Delight foliage sensitivity. I've always noticed that DD was "sensitive" to sprays (of which I use many). In particular, I've known for quite a while that I could not use any fungicide with Daconil in it, as it would burn all the foliage off of DD. Some oil-based compositions do that to DD also.

And wouldn't you know it, the roses that are most intolerant of sprays are the same ones that need the sprays the most, because it is generally those "weak foliaged" roses that are prone to disease (and apparently tender and tasty to deer, too, lol).

So I'm not surprised it's also allergic to something relatively caustic like a repellant.

Wow - that is huge! I use deer cages too, but mine are smaller, because I only use them until the rose gets big enough to survive some grazing - after that I just use deer spray on the new growth as necessary. We do not have heavy deer "pressure" however - our deer are here at night a lot (usually one or two does with fawns), but our house is so close to downtown, I think they are on the desert course by the time they get here.

I presume you are using the egg based type of deer spray - that should not hurt the roses in the long run. Mine get white spots from the spray on the leaves, but not the black spots in your picture - was it hot when you sprayed?

Anyway, you did a great job - congratulations.

Jackie

I installed the other two cages. I needed to add a stake to each cage to get rid of the pucker where the ends of the fencing were attached. The ground is so hard that I could barely get the stakes in the ground. I was going to go to the Celebration of Old Roses to pick up a couple bushes. I decided to wait and pick up a couple more hybrid teas next winter. My wife wanted a Peace and a Pope John Paul II. I might try home depot or a local nursery to get the Peace, but am not too optimistic.

The one un caged rose is Portland from Glendora which has covered nicely from the rampant ruminants. la reine Victoria is behind the middle cage, but too sparse now to show up in the picture.

To the deer: look but don't touch.

This post was edited by deervssteve on Sun, May 19, 13 at 21:03

I am happy for you. Finally you will get some flowers. It will all be worth it. I think the larger size was a good choice.

I'd love to know more details about how you made it -- measurements and such. Where did you get a stake with a hole in it, for example?

The cages are made by cutting a 12 foot section of four foot plastic coated wire fencing and forming a circle. The stakes are abs stakes made by mastermark. They are used with landscape edging and for staking trees. A cheaper solution which I have used before is wooden stakes with an eye screw added.

You put a roof on the cage?

The cages do not have a roof. After being munched once, the bushes are less than 18" from the ground. I would be surprised if they get to 3 feet this season. If they start approaching that, I can use some deer netting across the top. I could use some more of the fencing material and cut a 48" circle to cover the top. I used all 50 feet to make the four cages. The cages are kind of flimsy (they are anchored so they won't tip), I doubt If a deer could lean against them. The deer would need to extend it's neck over the wire and lower their head. I think it would be too much bother to consider. They could trample the cages, but I really doubt it. I'm not sure they are even tall enough to get their neck over 48".

I've kept them away with sticks and deer netting.
After one year where they got my tomatoes, I put in four narrow posts strung line between them, hung deer netting and anchored the bottom by using a lot of small stakes and hooks. It worked but it was a pain.

The cages are self supporting and easy to remove.

This post was edited by deervssteve on Mon, May 20, 13 at 0:54

Steve, I hope your hard work pays off and you get to see your roses grow. Best wishes, Gean

Steve, what a lot of hard work you've done! I hope now you can rest easy and enjoy your roses. Thank you for sharing the pictures of the rose foliage after deer spray. I've been concerned about the scorching you mentioned from another thread. I'm so glad you didn't give up. There is usually a way!

Good luck! I hope it works. They don't look too bad. Maybe I'll try a few out on LI where I have planted some roses for a friend. An equally or perhaps even more disheartening problem, possibly, are the voles that eat the roses and other plants from underneath!

I wonder what cicadas eat, if anything! They are scheduled for this year.

I have a few moles, but in a different area of my yard.
My last house had gophers which are destructive.

My ultimate solution; a wire cage in the hole, a base to attach the above ground cage that would also hold mulch in place, razor wire over the top of the cage .... last one, maybe not.

I have been diligent regarding application of liquid fence, despite some comments here. I'm going to drown the bush in repellant to see if it stops the diabolical deer. I believe they are not effected by the repellant. Portland from Glendora is already four feet tall and will easily go over six feet. I'll try the four foot cage and see if the deer can eat over it.

I set a four foot cage over the bush. I can see that the deer couldn't eat the buds at four feet. I can assume unless robo deer visits, no cage needs to be over four feet no matter how tall the rose gets.