Damaged rhodies will resprout from those dormant leaf buds lower down the branches, not just from the ends, because the deer ate the branch ends, as long as the plant had enough root system to not die. Your plant may end up bushier after the deer pruning if it survives. As Morz8 said, you want to protect this plant for the rest of this winter and other winters, preferably with a physical barrier. From what others have posted, once a deer has found something good, it will return, and even the nasty-tasting sprays won't keep them away if they are humgry enough.

Thank you, both. That's good news. The poor plant looks pitiful now. But I do believe the root system got well established in the first couple years. I put it in good, acid soil and gave it good care and watering - plus, when I got it from the nursery, the root system looked pretty decent out of the pot.

Lower leaf buds must be *very* dormant. I looked at the bush and only saw sickeningly extensive devourment - absent leaves and petioles! To be truthful, I was a little too angry to do a close inspection and see those dormant buds. I'll look today.

I covered the bush yesterday with burlap. Snow will soon blanket that, so I doubt the deer will get to it again. Actually, I could make a fence-wire (2"-mesh) cylindrical fence right around it. But I'd guess the burlap will do the trick.

Thanks.

Joel

Joel - I'm not sure how much snow you get in BC, or how heavy and wet it is. We sometimes get three or four feet, and then get spring rains on top of that. If plants had burlap over them withut a frame supporting them, the weight of the wet snow could cause broken branches. So I guess I'm saying that if you get lots of heavy snow at any point in the year you might want to use that wire framework.

Also, we had some rhodies that we rescued from the dump in tough shape (to say nothing of the one that my DH ran over with a brushhog). The dormant buds on the branches were REALLY dormant, basically invisible. They sprouted just fine in the spring, so don't worry if you don't see any and it takes a few weeks in the spring. They start out as tiny reddish dots when they begin sprouting.

Not all Rhododendron or Mountain Laurel will recover from heavy deer browsing. I have lost several. One that I did not lose has foliage above six feet and is putting out foliage from the base, so now it is a two-tiered plant.

Hi, I'm following MorZ8's optimistic advice and accepting the words of encouragement. Fingers crossed. At this point (after an early snow-melt, but return to often cooler and cloudier conditions for over a month), leaf buds are just beginning to appear on my beleaguered rhoddie.

We'll see what happens, and I can report here. May be of interest to others whose lovely shrub meets with an accident.

Joel

Deer pruning often results in a nice bushy plant. Except when they go after arborvitae, they turn those into lollipops, eating what they can reach and leaving the tops.

Rhodies often sprout from what looks like totally bare brown wood. They're very good about sprouting from wherever you happen to want to cut them back to, like a boxwood, and unlike a lot of other woody plants. Around here people routinely take a too-tall monster rhodie and cut it down to the ground almost to rejuvenate it. They usually will resprout from the stump. A bit extreme but it should give you hope.

Some species and varieties are naturally leggy, like our native rhodies here in the PNW are naturally leggy. Part of that is whether they're 1yr or 2 yr or 3 yr rhodies - how long they hold an individual leaf before dropping it. Each species and variety is either a 1 or 2 or 3 yr type. The wild rhodies I see growing in the mountains appear to be 2 yr rhodies which tends to leave them bare at the bases. Also they drop the bottom leaves if they're in dry or lean soil, only so much water and nutrients to go around so they sacrifice the oldest leaves.

Cool and cloudy is just what your rhodie wants if it's trying to replace lost leaves with a immature root ball! I think it'll be fine. Deer don't normally eat rhodies but there's always a dumb one that doesn't know any better, or a starving one that's desperate. It won't necessarily be repeated.

Thanks, Reg. It does give me hope. It helps!

J.

I read your posting with interest as I planted my first rhododendron last spring covered with purple flowers. We enjoyed it all summer, but sometime early in the winter the deer got to it as well as the azalea I planted. I was so disappointed. My only hope was a leaf or two missed near the bottom of the plant, but the deer ate every other leaf and all the flower buds. A friend told me that if it survives I will not have any flowers this year, but I'm now seeing what looks like flower buds. Are these really just leaves? Will I have to wait till next year to see flowers?

Something browsed all the leaves (except for two or three) along with the ends of the stems off a newly planted Rhododendron canadensis that I had bought from a nursery specializing in native species. ( I'm in Massachusetts.) there are the few pitiful leaves and what look to be a couple leaf buds on the plant. I assume it was deer, though I have never seen any in my suburban yard. This happened in June, with plenty of other fodder around so I'm perplexed as to why this poor plant was targeted. Last spring all my blueberry bushes, which I had in pots in my front yard, we're treated to a similar pruning. Is there anything else besides deer that would bedevil my poor shrubs this way? I'm going to put netting around them and hope for the best. My blueberries have never had a chance to produce a crop, though I've had them for several years. Any comments and suggestions...or just commiseration...are welcome!

(southern NH) I planted several small rhododendrons and azaleas in our back yard a few years ago. The last couple of winters, they have been stripped clean of almost all leaves. Actually, they tend to be stripped clean each SPRING as the snow begins to melt. A neighbor said that Milorganite (sp?) helps deter the deer as well as fertilizes the plants. That has proven to be true. But considering I seem to have planted these bushes in the middle of "deer highway", I'm going to start wrapping them in burlap each winter. I'm happy to have found this string of posts to learn there is still hope for me beleaguered plants.

NOTE: The deer never touch my rhodies in the front of the house, but they LOVE the young tender ones in the back. Plus, I have been nice enough to provide fresh salad for them as well with the addition of multiple hostas. Sigh!

If any of you have any additional suggestions, I'm all ears.

As I said above, I'd recommend wire cages (fastened to stakes) rather than burlap. Generally burlap is used to prevent winter burn, but around here, without support burlap can get heavy from wet snow and ice and do damage to branches. I guess you could set stakes and then do the burlap wrap, but to my mind the wire cages are less visually intrusive and can probably be reused for longer.

The other thing I've done to successfully discourage deer at my inlaws' is a combination approach. I set 6' poles in a somewhat random zigzag and then strung transparent 70 lb test fishing line (the strongest I could find locally) at 3 levels in a zigzagged random pattern around a holly hedge that had been decimated the previous 2 winters. Since deer don't have good depth perception and mostly feed in poor light, it was difficult for them to know where the fishing line was and whether there was a good landing spot if they jumped. Between the fishing line and my MIL's addition of Irish Spring soap in bags on the branches, the hedge wasn't touched. I just dismantle the pole structure in the spring once there's alternate food available.