Crocuses and Muscari must be their favorites! They got all mine, so last year I replanted inside of a wire mesh cage. It worked! I even covered the cage with a wire mesh lid and lashed it closed using galvanized wire. I planted it full of all sorts of bulbs that have stems that arent so thick. They grow thru it just fine. Thinking they would not eat anything from the Allium family, I had also planted small pink Alliums in that bed before the cage was installed. They ate those too. I buried the cage full of bulbs and filled it with soil, attached the cover, covered it with soil and planted Pansies on top of it. The Pansy roots grew into the mesh and the voles could not get those either, or they definately would have. Robin in Lewisville (here's a pic of me at Reynolda Gardens) {{gwi:582675}}

Besides baptisia and hosta, I've had voles go after Carolina bush pea and lespedeza. A few of the bearded iris but not many. Actually I think they'll eat anything as long as it's not poisonous. I planted some of my stuff in wire mesh cages but what a pain (literally). After reading an article in the newspaper and about TriangleJohn's experience, I started using big heavy plastic pots with the bottoms cut out to give the roots room to grow -- voles generally won't tunnel more than a foot down, and unlike mice they don't seem willing to chew through plastic. My vole problem here is somewhat limited by the presence of snakes and two hunting cats.

They love roses and apple trees. They also like daylilies, but I've not lost any of those because the roots will grow back from just a nub.
Dana

I was wondering about daylilies especially since I have a bunch(my first mail order) in pots to plant out. Maybe that's not my best choice for planting in that spot the baptisia was planted in. I haven't lost any other plants besides the baptisia but would rather not tempt fate.

I'm blaming voles for the loss of my lovely Asiatic lilies. I'm thinking of sprinkling a product called Mole-Max on my garden beds to protect what's already growing and using Permatill to surround any bulbs I plant this fall. Quirkpod, I'm discouraged to learn about your Alliums.

This is the first summer in about 4 years that I haven't grown castor bean plants. They'll be back new year!

The voles ate all my white-leafed hosta but left the green!

they took out a beautiful tricyrtis in my garden

Over time voles have eaten everything that I've planted in the garden with the exception of daffodil and fritallaria bulbs. Baptisia, hosta, and oriental daylily bulbs are at the top of the list but they've eaten phlox, iris, daylilies, tulip bulbs and ruined many roses with their digging. I've tried everything to deter them - poison, Permatill etc. but building wire cages is the only sure fire method to stop them other then letting dogs and cats go after them.

Chinese indigo is a good plant to replace baptisia with. http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/80066/ It's about the same height and has similar greenery and has wisteria type pink blooms in the Spring/Early Summer. It spreads slowly by runners but is easy to contain by pulling out what you don't want. The voles haven't bothered with them much because the stems are more woody then tuberous.

Well I can add liatris to the list. Now there's no question about it. Oh well, it was bound to happen eventually. At least I don't have alot of bulbs planted already and I've never bought a hosta. If there's anything else that hasn't been mentioned that they won't leave alone for you, let me know. I'm already concerned about Formosa lily, rainliles, and hedychium. Sabal minor? say it ain't so!

Shari

Voles won't eat rain lilies. They're in the Amaryllis family and are poisonous. Voles haven't eaten my hardy ginger or Formosa lily either, and the Formosa lily has been in for 3 years. The hardy ginger has only been in for less than a year. The root is very aromatic and voles may find that unappealing.

I had one variegated shell ginger that I think they got, but it's possible that it was something else. None of the others have been touched and I definately have seen signs of vole activity this year. Hostas are definately a favorite for them. -Ais.

When using a bottomless pot for bulbs, is the top of the pot even with the ground? I assume that bulbs that ordinarily would spread would be prevented when they're planted in pots for plunging in the ground.

When I plant stuff in bottomless pots, the top is even or a little bit above the ground. So, bulbs can't spread. The tunneling voles bump into the plastic side of the pot and so far have given up. I also put sharp gravel around the plants inside the pot so that if the vole got over the plastic, he would still be discouraged from digging.

Thanks guys. This is all new to me. I have planting still to do. I know I can't give all of them special treatment but maybe I can protect the most vulnerable when they're planted.

Okay now I feel like I'm answering my own question a little at a time. Add Cardoon to the list. Actually I think Cardoon might be great as a large potted plant anyway. Easy from WS seed.

Just rescued my first daylily casualty. I'm going to have to cancel an order I've placed so I can put the money and time into trying to safely plant the ones I already have potted up :( Anybody got some snakes I could trade for? I've yet to see one here.

Latest update- add Canna to the list. The most interesting thing that's happened so far- this morning I found a hole right next to a Kalimeris incisa 'Variegata' that I had planted as a small division this year. I have been pleased with that plant because I have trouble getting it started here for some reason and it was doing well. So I firmed the soil around it and watered it hoping it would recover. Just now on my brief walk about at sundown, the hole is back and the entire plant is gone. So far I've been finding above ground remains but this one has just disappeared!

This is old hat to many of y'all I'm sure but posts have kinda slowed down on here lately so I thought I'd share.

My deer ate all my kalimeris and lots of my rain lilies. Voles ate up all the musacari.

Brenda, with any luck my established clump of Kalimeris will survive for me to share it again if you want to try. So sorry to hear about the rain lilies. I figure I've got bunnies and voles already so deer must be next. I have lots of seed from my Zephyranthes citrina if you'd like some. I have no idea what the best way is to grow them.

I can't grow Polemonium at all, they killed 'Brise d'Anjou' twice through plastic hardware cloth that I use to line planting holes of susceptible plants. And I can't grow bird's foot violet in the ground either, but it's finally doing well in the top of a strawberry pot. The voles just about killed my Corylus avellana 'Contorta' a few years ago. There were almost no roots left when I noticed it listing one afternoon. I replanted in a protected spot and the roots grew back from the graft, so now I have an 'own root' for the price of a grafted plant and all the suckers are contorted. So there was a silver lining to that one, but I still hate voles.

I will share our remedy for voles that has cut over 100 holes down to 5, in our yard, in 2 seasons, and saved plants. It is not for everyone. I do not have animals or kids. Buy rat poison (got mine from the local feed/farmer's store in town.) Place some of the poison in the hole, mine came in nuggets. I wore gloves of course, and poke the poison down in the hole with a long screwdriver. Pack the hole with the cheapest kitty litter you can find (unscented.) Use the blunt end of the screwdriver to tap the kitty litter down to form a seal. This will expand and plug the hole. Do this when it will not rain for 24 hours. Sometimes the voles will dig a new hole and sometimes they will break through. You just have to be persistent, but this has drastically reduced the number of holes and damage to our yard.

I dug and potted some of the Kalimeris from my big clump this morning. There were at least 3 holes right at the clump. Those must be some tasty roots. Good thing it's hardy enough to overwinter in a pot outdoors

I hate voles!!!!!

i just read about a product that gardens alive is selling to deal with voles & moles. it's on sale right now. has anyone tried it? does it work? i worked lots of voleblock/permatill into the bed they get into the worst last winter and i swear that dug right through it. it was like i'd loosened the soil just for them! they got half of my spigelia. boy was i mad!! fortunately it bounced back and is fine. anytime i noticed a hole, i'd stuff it with straight volebloc, as much as i could cram in. they always just make new holes, though. a friend swears by putting a half a stick of juicy fruit down into each hole. i do it too- dunno if it works, but it's harmless enough, except to them. supposed to 'gum' up their innards after they eat it. they like the fruity smell. moles don't touch it since they're after worms. tam

That's bad news about the rain lilies. The voles haven't eaten any of mine but maybe they will eventually. Brenda if my atamasco set any seed next year I'll try to start some for you to bring to the fall swap -- unless I go down to my swamp this spring in which case I can bring some then. I also have some citrina seedlings (which may have crossed with some pink ones) that I may be able to divide this spring. Shari if you start any rain lilies from seed they do best if the seed is sown soon as it's ripe -- seeds from plants in the amaryllis family need to be planted right away.

Voles also love the roots of baby roses (I usually sink mine in a pot in the ground until the roses get some size). Voles will eat the roots of adult roses too, but they've only killed some of the babies so far. And voles love hyacinth. I rescued some old blue Roman hyacinths from DH's grandmother's garden, and the voles ate all but one. I hope it's OK because the heirloom blue hyacinth doesn't seem to be in the trade anymore -- the only place that carries them is Old House Gardens for $16 a bulb!

Thanks for the tip on the rose seedling. I'll be sure to sink the pot on that one. Some of the Z. citrina seeds just ripened within the past week so I may try them now.

I'd love to order from Old House Gardens but can't afford to. One day I will order Gladiolus byzantinus from them. Has anybody ordered the ones from Terra Ceia? Probably dutch bulbs but I just wondered how they do. Listed at 3ft so I wonder if they flop w/out staking.

My voles go right through the volebloc too. I use to try and kill them with traps and poison, but I gave up. They were too smart and learned very quickly to avoid both. Now I just try to find things they don't kill and plant the stuff they really love in wire cages. I've also learned to love red clay soil because voles don't seem to like it much. When we had the pool put in, the yard had to be terraced to accomodate the slope, so above the retaining wall is the original topsoil and below it is the clay subsoil. I've had the most success growing things in the clay. I just amend the planting hole and plant high for things that need good drainage. I've never seen any evidence of voles in that part of the garden.
Dana

The best vole deterrent I've tried so far has been used kitty litter stuffed down their tunnels. I don't have cats so I get it from a friend, and so far it keeps them away for about 6 months before I have to do it again.

I have 2 indoor cats so I guess I'll give the litter a try. There have been some wild cats in the neighborhood but I haven't seen any signs of them being in my planting beds in a while. I wish I could keep an indoor/outdoor kitty but I don't have the heart to do it here in such a populated area- something would happen to it and it would just break our hearts.

Latest snack- balloon flower.

Is the Kitty used? I wondered if the smell would be effective?

I soak the mouse/rat posion pellets (they are round green balls found in garden centers or feed & seed stores)in apple juice. Makes the bait partculiarly attractive to the little buggers. Wearing gloves, I drop 2-3 balls down each vole hole and plug the holes with soil. My vole poulation declines drastically.
Voles love to use the tunnels dug by moles as well so I have planted Mole Plants in the herb garden and lily bed. A perrential member of the castor family (without the poisonous seeds), the plant's root system puts out a toxin the moles hate and they leave the area. Each plant will cover about 40 feet in circumference. That helps control the vole population as well.

I lost the most plants when I started using a rototiller one fall for new beds. That soft fluffy earth really attracted them to eat almost everything. I also started using a bed above a dry stack stone retaining wall - didn't know those walls are a perfect winter home for voles.

Neither voleblock nor gravel nor castor oil products worked very well. now hostas and lilies in bottomless pots (I use drip irrigation & try to use richer soil and water crystals for potted hostas and watch for signs of overcrowded pots since those waxy leaves are so thick -light rain showers don't help them), gave up on iris anyway, long daylily bed on deep wire box. If my wire boxes aren't deep and I use them for plants that must be divided, the roots can get pretty mangled in the process. When I suffered so many losses I used the rat poison in their small exit holes with good luck, but not now in many yrs - this process also requires due diligence, even when its very hot and humid.
I have never lost a member of amaryllis family, nor a ginger plant, nor clematis, verbena, salvia, dahlia(I have many, all types), small allium, rain lilies multiply but I don't think I've lost any, fern, lily of valley, iris cristata,iris pseudo., acorus, dodecatheon, gaura, begonia grandis (huge patch), agastache, aster laevis, aster divaricatus, mum, ice plant, dianthus or alstromeria. I know that some of these could be attacked, but they have survived for many years now.
I am actually afraid to till again, and I add in small areas by necessity now anyway. And this has gone on way too long - Sorry.

I'll knock on wood, but so far the cat who adopted us two years ago gets the credit for lack of vole damage. She is a sweet kitty, but she had been on her on for awhile, judging from her coat. Her courtship rite started with a dead vole on a path where I would see it, just as I was realizing how much vole candy I had out there (and I had seen voles). Yes, I feed her, but her Diana-the-Huntress persona is intact.

Just a thought. Moles are looking for grubs so you might first check to see if you have lots of grubs in your yard or flower bed. Voles as someone said follow the moles once tunnels are dug by the mole. These voles are the critters eating the roots of plants. So, it is a cycle usually starting with grubs being available to the Mole.
Milky Spore is a natural way to treat the Grub issue.

Moles eat earthworms, too. They also tunnel in garden beds where there is absolutely no grass or sod.

The mesh trashcans with solid bottoms, popular this time of year for back to school/dorm rooms give lots of soil space for plants like roses. Weave a mesh over the top or cut hardware mesh in a circle and connect it to the mesh of the trashcan.

This wasn't a bad year for voles or japanese beetles here.