Do you have deer?? I know that my mom's deer eat all her clematis buds...any chance it's them?

Chipmunks have often stolen my flower buds to eat. I have a real problem with these pesky little critters. Do you have chipmunks, perhaps ?
Suzy

Thanks for your responses. I do not think I have deer (lucky me!) and haven't seen chipmunk.

I see squirrels and birds, like cardinals, mourning doves, crows and other small birds. I believe I had voles until a neighbor's cat decided to hang out under deck during the day.

Could any of them be it?

Thanks again.

Well you are certainly lucky that you don't have deer!! They eat EVERYTHING in sight!! They ate my whole red bud tree down to the bare stump!!

Anyway, I would guess that it could be chipmunks too, although I have two living under my garage and the clematis are right next to the garage and they have never attacked those. Could be the birds though...I am sure they might like to chomp a little...especially the crows and doves??

Anyway, good luck with your problem...I know how it goes!! Always fending off the pests!

Try a red pepper spray. Just take any kind of hot pepper and put it though your blender and strain and spray. I have found this quite effective and it won't hurt your plants.

One day sitting on my patio, I watched a chipmunk preying on my clems which I had sprayed, well he kept rubbing his face and jumped up and down and ran out into the yard.LOL!!! I still see him around but he stays far away from my clems!

Maybe this will help it's certainly worth a try.

Willow

That's a great idea! I certainly will try the hot pepper spray. This might even be good for the new sprouts in the Spring that keep getting nipped.

Thank you!

I'm having that problem with my roses that are close to the ground and also my lilies. It's either voles, the bunny I saw this morning or the groundhog that lives next door

I also recently bought The President, and the buds have disappeared on it as well! One day I had 7 buds, the next day six were gone and the next day that one was gone. I have 4 buds now, and one is slowly disappearing. I'm not seeing any pests. I dusted with sevin and it seemed to stunt the petals on 1 bud. I will look for earwigs but so far havent seen any.