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My Garden » Forums » General Gardening » Pests and Diseases » Who/what is picking my Agapanthus flowers?
Last post 06-07-2008 7:58 PM by Foxnfirefly. 9 replies.
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Woke up this morning to find four of my Agapanthus flowers had been 'picked'. The flowers, on their stems, were lying otherwise unharmed alongside the plant which itself showed no signs of being trampled on - the leaves were in place and the remainder of the four stems were vertical. It's as if someone had picked the flowers for display in a vase, which is precisely where they are now.
My best guess is a fox. But how and why would an animal do this? Anyone else had this experience?
Was it the entire head that was picked, or individual flowers?
Imagine you want to pick 4 Agapanthus flower heads to place in a tall vase. You would cut the flower stalks about one foot below the flower head ensuring that you did not damage the flower head itself. That's how it looked.
Weird. I've seen the occasional small flower 'picked' and left (slugs, I think?) but can't imagine what would do this - except a person attempting to steal them.
Well Deborah up the road from Wisley. HMMMMN I don't think a fox will have cut the flowers for you, it would have left chewing marks on the stem, I don't know which animal may have done this, it has never happened not even in any of my Beatrix potter books, but maybe a reptile has done it? in Surrey you will have plenty of reptilian species where it is warm?
Were the cuts 'clean' cuts as tho' with scissors?!?!?!
Er...no!! So that rules out humans with scissors, or squirrels with scissors for that matter.
The 'cut's are not clean - it's as if someone has broken off the stalks with their fingers over an approx 2 inch length of stalk. But pretty sure it's not a human in our small, locked, back garden in civilised 'Surray'. It is consistent with an animal chewing through the stalk but each time it is bitten right through and the stalk/flower is left on the ground without further signs of damage.
In other words, it looks like a willful act. We had no trouble last year and our garden is teaming with wildlife including squirrels. However this year we've noticed a fox around in the front gardens during daylight - and 'fox' and 'willful' seem to go together.
The additional toll last night was one more Agapanthus plus a sunflower stalk.
Hi Deborah, something is seriously adrift in your garden, who is doing all the cutting? it might be a fox cub? but you will know if you have resident foxes because they stink to high heaven it might be worth installing a camera, you can get a night vision and daylight remote camera for a mere £50, so it may be worth doing. I did hear about the "Surrey Puma" but I don't think it will bother with sunflowers, Surrey is very posh too much so for a Northerner, however in your favour is the fact that you are in the most affluent area of the country so you could easily afford to hire in a man with a gun for the night and he can shoot who ever is damaging your garden.
Weirder and weirder.
LOL!! That sounds like using a tank to kill a fly...( i.e. .hire a sniper to catch the lily cutter.)
Ilove agapanthus and lilies, too, and can sympathesize with you, Deborah. But I also found broken lilies out in front and figured it was the fox chasing the chipmunks. The foxes don't give a crock of beans about the lilies--they just come for the food. I wish I could put a webcam on that area to see what goes on during the night/day. My Casa Blanca lilies got knocked down recently so I'm short on the folower show but what can I say? Stuff happens.
