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jo_condon

Help Purple Turtlehead plants

10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago

Help! Something or someone destroyed my 2 purple turtlehead plants. They look like all the foliage had been just cut right off. I looked on line and realized that they are bitter and animals avoid them. Are there any animals that are attracted to them?. I find it hard to believe it was intentional as all other plants are intact. They are planted by a wall near the road and were doing so well. Any advice would be appreciated. This is the second season for them and last summer nothing bothered them.

Comments (16)

  • 10 years ago

    A photo, maybe before and after might help?

    Jo Condon thanked User
  • 10 years ago

    Jo Condon; where did you find your purple turtleheads? I've been looking all over.

    Jo Condon thanked Joey LeBlanc
  • 10 years ago

    joey ... if you cant find something under a common name.. try converting to the latin name.. and you might find out.. that plant delight nursery might have them ...

    ken

    Jo Condon thanked ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
  • 10 years ago

    Jo, if you had a photo of the plants, someone might recognize the damage. But rabbit and deer resistant plants don't come with guarantees either, the wildlife can always surprise you. I don't know where you are, do you have deer? The fawns will taste just about anything. They haven't learned yet what they will like and don't like and investigate whatever is in front of them. Some of my most surprising damage will come from younger animals, undeveloped taste buds ;-)

    Jo Condon thanked morz8 - Washington Coast
  • 10 years ago

  • 10 years ago

    I got the plants last year 2015 at Bjs wholesale club chicopee Ma. They were doing great until.....

  • 10 years ago

    I dont have a before pic

  • 10 years ago

  • 10 years ago

    Those tidy diagonal cuts look like rabbits have been eating your turtleheads. Try giving it a staked down collar of wire mesh that's sized to exclude young and adult bunnies and tall enough that they can't reach over the top of it. Or spray the plants with rabbit repellant. There's enough plant left that if you can protect it, it will return without problem. I expect you will even get some flowers, though they will probably be delayed and may be fewer in number.

    Jo Condon thanked NHBabs z4b-5a NH
  • 10 years ago

    For future reference, Botanical name for turtlehead is Chelone lyonii.

    Jo Condon thanked gardenweed_z6a
  • 10 years ago

    Thank you. I will try that. Apparently last year they werent interested. This year they must be more appealing. We have a ton of rabbits!

  • 4 years ago

    Same here this year!

  • 3 years ago

    I am having that problem. Same look. However, I've been thinking it is mice or voles. Our yard is fenced in and rabbits can't get in. COULD IT be voles? The same thing happened last year. towards the end of the summer right when my turtle heads are about to open something chews them down.

  • 3 years ago

    Voles work underground.

  • 3 years ago

    Since my last post, we have learned Voles DO and DID destroy our plants. They ate parts of the leaves and stems from our turtle heads and other plants as well in our garden berm. We have seen areas where they travel eating the grass and making many paths above the ground. (parts of our lawn are very noticeable of this damage, like roadways ) We also have found holes where they go underground. My husband saw one run into a hole and disappear. We also had a strange finding in our yard. a few fur balls if you will. Coughed up from an owl or hawk ... vole fur. We are in the process of deciding how best to handle the problem. It appears that we do indeed have quite a lot of voles on the property. I didn't mind having occasional visitors in the past years such as a possum, large red-tailed hawks, or even squirrels or rabbits once in a while, but these voles are doing a considerable amount of damage.