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gallowj

By Gallowj

Cumbria, United Kingdom Gb

We are about to invest in 1000 bluebell bulbs. We have a good site for our bluebell wood but lots of rabbits. Do rabbits eat bluebell bulbs and / or plants ? If so, any suggestions as to how we can best protect our bluebells?




Answers

 

How lovely to be able to plant so many you must have a large area? They should be fine so should not need any protection. Dare I hope you are planting English Bluebells?
The RHS site gives a long list of plants and shrubs that are 'Rabbit-resistant plants' and some may appeal to you such as Narcissus and Primulas?

14 Oct, 2012

 

How wonderful! That will be a lovely sight.

The dreaded rabbit. I have sleepless nights over them. I do have a few bluebells and have never seen any evidence of rabbits going for them or the bulbs.

Protection against the 'dear' little things is a bit of a headache. If you decided to fence, you need to use rabbit netting, which is tougher than most rolls of netting in the average garden centre. It needs to be high enough so that they can't jump over but also dug into the ground not less than six inches. However, I have decided that there must be flying rabbits round here because they always seem to beat me.

14 Oct, 2012

 

Yes, we do intend to plant English Bluebells. Currently shopping around for the best deal. Thank you both for your reassuring advice. My concerns about the rabbits are based upon previous experiences. Irises and Red Hot Pokers that we planted last autumn didn't appear at all this year and we've blamed this on the rabbits although we don't know for sure! Certainly, they have decimated many of the shrubs that we have planted. I will certainly be doing some research into "rabbit resistant" shrubs before buying any more!

The wooded area I refer to is a shared area so fencing is probably not be an option. To be honest there are so many burrows that we might end up fencing some in rather than out!

The planting area seems to meet most of the requirements for a Bluebell wood. I haven't actually tested the ph though. I'm wondering if this is really necessary??

15 Oct, 2012

 

Wild rabbits don't eat bluebells, they are one of the plants they avoid - clever little things. Tame ones might and that would poison them.

15 Oct, 2012

 

Make sure that the bulbs are from cultivated sources and not dug up from the wild.

16 Oct, 2012

How do I say thanks?

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