if there is no way to rid urself of deer, then i would say that its ecologically more than fine to put in some bulbs. deer are gonna get them anyhow...

as a side comment that relates.
even tho we are all gardners here, there is a whole nuther side out there that wants even MORE deer. i think for the health of our woodlands, there needs to be some sort of balance or it could get ugly. but alas, my guess is that ecology will lose this fight as it does most others...

sad

froggy

We planted dafodils in our woods last fall for the first time. The deer have totally decimated the whole understory of our woods...When I remember what used to be there, it makes me want to weep.

In my opinion, what is ecologically unsound is that our communities are not confronting the deer problem. In my area it is the native plants that once were food for the birds and other creatures of the woodlands that are now gone.

Nature has a wonderful way of fitting things together, and our refusal to deal with the deer problem has thrown everything out of wack. For example, we had a large grouping of Cardinal plants which bloomed just before the hummers were about to take their long journey south. How wonderful it was to see the hummers feast on the nectar of the Cardinal plants, as well as to enjoy that vivid red that I have never seen in any other plant. Alas, the deer have eaten all of them.

The groups that work to protect the deer seem to have forgotten about all of the other creatures that used to call the forest home. It is a truly sad situation.

Be careful,I have been waging a war on daff and snow drops for years.It seems that anywhere soil was spilled snowdrops sprout.many wheelbarrow loads of those nasty bulbs have gone to the burn pile. Overbrowsing by deer here is a big problem,I'm currently installing a fence around 5 acres of woodlands to restore the understory.But overbrowsing make weeds like daffs and snowdrops even worst,because the deer dont like them.They resemble growing trash in otherwise pristine woodland areas.

So I take it you dont like Daffs and Snowdrops, nywoodsman? I guess everyone has their own opinion of what a weed is.

The aesthetics of biological systems transend my personal opinion.The idea of a garden as a mere collection of pretty flowering plants is a quaint anacronism that misses the whole point.A better definition of a "garden" is one of an ecosystem that,over time, self organize itself into complex fractual patterns .The symetry that emmerges is subtle but visually apparent to the understanding eye.Its the difference between the merely pretty and the sublime.When I see daff in the woods I'm reminded that spot on the back road where everyone dumps their wornout appliances.