They should survive but I doubt if the deer ate the leaves as generally they will chew on one then because of the taste not bite any more. Perhaps a person who thought they were being helpful by cutting them back did it. If you find out who thank them but tell them YOU what to handle your own plants.

Perhaps you doubt the deer ate the leaves but I have no doubts whatsoever; perhaps the deer lost his tastebuds due to a bizarre accident.....But gee thanks for the input.

OK, but if it was deer you have a major problem this fall and winter keeping the deer from eating any plant that you have in your yard. I strongly suggest that you prepare some cages to surround the rest of your plants trees, shrubs, etc because if the deer were hungry enough to eat all of the peony leaves you have an over abundance of deer. When the weather turns colder and other plants die down the deer will eat every thing they can find to stay alive.

In the mean time you might want to brush up on plants deer eat and ways to prevent deer damage.

Interested to know if the deer continued to eat your peonies? Because this year they have eaten every leaf off my bushes, peonies, lilacs, and forsythias. There is plenty of grass but they won't leave my plants alone!

They ate ready to open peony buds off my plants this year and left the daylilies alone. And they got fearless later in the summer, every hosta against the side of the house is leafless. Weird year all around.

Same here in Arkansas, beautiful green grass and they eat things they are not suppose to like. Very strange. I have to build cages around everything to keep them out!

what kind of deer? I have a huge peony bed and the deer roam thru the summer and not one has taste tested the plants. Tulips are another matter all together, totally gone.

Right there with you, ubro. The deer have never touched my peonies until this spring, now it seems they've acquired the taste.

All I have to say is Deers are NOT welcome in my neighborhood.

Deer will eat anything if they are hungry. They do prefer things like hydrangea's but if hungry they will eat things they know are bad for them. Part of life's cycle. Unless deer are culled/killed they will overpopulate an area and either move away if they can or after eating everything they can they will die of starvation.

maybe my saving grace is that I live in an agricultural area so they have lots of other choices and also my dogs. The deer come, and the deer go, probably not around long enough to snack.

So the peony will not come back This year? The deer ate all 3 of them .

I highly doubt if it will flower. Peonies have secondary buds below the primary ones on the root itself. These buds grow when the main ones are damaged. That said survival will depend upon how strong the root is and the summer conditions.

I don't think deer eat grass. That is the problem. I have read that acorns are their preferred food. But they are clearly learning to prefer garden plants. BTW my friend has noticed that they love jewel weed, if you want to plant a large stand to feed them. They are big creatures & need a lot of food. They eat poison ivy as well, which is a plus.

We have a lot of does whohave fawns , this year total of 6 and yes my peony leaves wereezten off two plants completely, my poentillea bushes, forsythia , boxwoods all eaten considerably . I usually spray with Deer Fence but its been so stormy or hot and humid,

I havent been able to kerp up. I did sprinkle dries blood and that helped some,

I ve also used spray oil with ground pepper over top of plants and that helped .

again if its raining every other day, its hard to maintain. Be aware deer will jump into a fence thats Under 6 ft to eat a plant. They destroyed a peach tree myhusband had grown from seed or pit and had a fence atound.. The fence was 5 ft tall.

The fencing Round plants has to be tall and a cylinder so when a doetries to gether mouth to the olant, its out of reach. Thats what my neighbors have done to protect their trees and shrubs. Forget Irish Spring, thedeer will push it away and eat anyway.