Sorry about your columbines. I typically blame the squirrels for everything. They even dig up a daffodil bulb or two in my yard. I wish they would eat them.

I have seen the squirrels dig up daff bulbs right after they were planted and then leave them all over the ground. I finally quit planting bulbs. Between the squirrels, voles and deer, my bulbs didn't stand a snowball's chance in summer.

Penny

Penny-I'm betting on the mountain lions, check for tracks!

Penny,
So sorry to hear about your columbines, no chance to stick them back in the ground?

We still have some snow on the ground, and it is impossible to venture out yet as the ground is saturated - way too wet to walk anywhere in or around the gardens. I don't know how much winter and critter damage we have suffered, but it has been a long hard winter, so I am not too optimistic.

Husky, you are toooo funny.

I know we laugh and moan about all the critter challenges, but last month my DH Ray was outside splitting wood when he saw our resident skunk acting strangely. He assumed it was rabid and rather than coming to get me and a gun he tried to kill it with a piece of cordwood. He chased it off but it circled back around and jumped him from the rear and bit him. He managed to kill it and it was sent to the state for testing and confirmed rabid. Fortunately the shots are now normal vaccines, not the nightmare stories we were all brought up on, and he had a series of shots once a week for a month. The farm is now on a sort of quarantine for 6 months, since not all our outdoor and semi feral barn cats are vaccinated, and I probably need to go get the preventive rabies shots to be safe.

It sure made for a few very stressful weeks!

Anyone heard from Tara?

-Rosalinda

Penny,

I'll bet that the critters that took out your plants, roots and all, were voles. They do very well living all winter under deep snow.

Rosalinda
there was nothing to put back the plants were completely gone. the only thing left was the big whole where the root came out.

elrem2002
I doubt it was the voles that ripped these out as they were three or 4 yr. old plants and the roots were huge. I had tried to dig one out last spring to transplant it and it went down so deep I couldn't get it out without breaking the root off. The voles have eaten all the roots of my Copper Iris this winter that were planted in the front bed. I have been trying to catch the culprit(s) for over a week to no avail as every trap has been avoided.

Penny

Pulled right out of the ground roots and all makes me think large critter. Deer, woodchuck, human.

Or mountain lion. Maybe a wolverine. ;-)

It would have to be something larger than a vole for sure but they were also buried under about 2 ft. of snow and as soon as the snow melted is when I discovered them gone and the open holes exposed.

These columbines have all been in the ground for several years and if you grow columbines you know what a big root they can de4velop over time.

Penny

Now aqll the new growth on my tall garden phlox are being eaten!

Penny

My columbines have almost all disappeared over the years - in my garden, at least, it seems like some kinds of plants last for a few years and then just die out. Not sure if this could be your issue.

On the rabies issue - we had a rabid woodchuck on our land a few years ago. It followed my daughter and the dog around the yard sniffing them, and when the neighbor came with his gun it came right up to him. He shot it, and took care of it, bless him. My poor daughter now is afraid of woodchucks! :-)

Columbines can be short lived perennials but mine were ripped right out of the ground root and all or eaten down to the crown. They didn't die off.

Penny

Perhaps they were not right ripped out, but died and composted in their hole over winter, as written some do not last long. In general, do not use Preen around Columbines to permit them to reseed.

Penny-hahaha you're not gonna win on this one...i say you go with my original thought that it was the mountain lion...or else i'll confess that i snuck over in the dead of winter and dug them up, I always admired and wanted your native columbines or maybe it was that darn brown recluse spider. My dear friend you're never gonna know, so chalk it up to living in wonderful WNY. Here's wishing to warm weather, a great swap and many hummingbirds visiting our gardens. I've got some cypress vines and thunbergia to share with you and also some of that awesome worm compost so all is good.

NO NO NO they didn't die!. I can see where all the leaves have been eaten of the one that was left. Two days ago it was full of leaves. I dug it up and put it in a pot and it now has two new baby leaves. The others had all the stems laying on the ground around the hole. Something pulled those plants right out of the ground.

Penny

The varmint must not have gotten the entire root out because I am seeing new growth...not new seedling growth but new growth from what ever is left of the original root. They may not bloom this year but at least they are still there. Will be starting more plants this summer/fall

Penny

I caught the large vole that was eating all my iris fulvas! I saw it running into the garage since the door got distroyed during those 83 mph winds last week and it was running in and out so I put one of my Tom cat traps in the corner where it was going in and out and within 24 hrs. I had him/her and it was a big one too! So far no more plant damage

Penny

Going in and out of the garage? Probably there are a bunch of little baby columbine eaters in a nest in the garage?

That is what I am afraid of either that or it was going to build a nest in there. It was pretty fat so maybe it hadn't had any babies yet.