Rabbit resistant gardening and plants
If you live in one of Britain’s many, many agricultural areas, you probably have to cope with the predations of rabbits. However lovely they look in our lanes and hedgerows, they are a damn nuisance in our flower borders!
Don’t despair though – along with rabbit proof fencing and scarers (machines that make random noises and spin round to frighten rabbits) you can plant some flowers, bulbs, shrubs and trees that rabbits really don’t like to eat. To be clear, in a famine season, rabbits will eat anything that’s not nailed down or actively poisonous, but given a choice between the plants below and almost anything else, they’ll choose the anything else. So why not fill your garden with the following bulbs and herbaceous perennials:
- Acanthus
- Agapanthus
- Alchemilla mollis
- Anemone coronaria
- Aquilegia
- Astilbe
- Bellflowers
- Bergenia
- Catmint – which does double duty, rabbits don’t eat it and cats love it, so it encourages this rabbit predator to visit your garden.
- Chionodoxia
- Corydalis
- Cyclamen
- Dahlia
- Day Lily
- Delphinium
- Doronicum
- Euphorbia
- Forget-me-not
- Foxglove
- Geranium
- Hellebores
- Iris foetidissima – which doesn’t smell particularly bad to us, but does to rabbits and birds – so this is one to grow if you have finches that pull your spring flowers apart too.
- Iris sibirica
- Jacob's ladder
- London Pride – these, for some reason, also seem to offer some protection to plants near them
- Michealmas daisy
- Narcissus
- Snowdrops
- Sunflowers
And in terms of shrubs, you can plant:
- Berberis – the prickles really keep the rabbits away so plant this as a hedge if you can
- Buddleia
- Ceanothus
- Euonymus
- Hydrangea
- Hypericum
- Olearia – the prickly ornamental olive
- Ornamental and edible currants – yup, amazingly, rabbits don’t like them!
- Philadelphus
- Skimmia
- Snowberry
- Spirea – they will eat this, but only if they are desperate
- Tree Paeony
- Viburnum opulus
Other articles you may find interesting
Allotments :: Bog Hints :: Bog Plants :: Clay :: Costal Hints :: Costal Plants :: Damp Shade Hints :: Damp Shade Plants :: Drought Hints :: Drought Plants :: Electricity :: Exposed :: Exposed Plants :: Gravel :: Gravel Plants :: Hints & Tips Plants in the Shade :: Living Structures :: Noise :: Rabbits :: Roof & Balconies :: Urban Hints :: Urban Plants :: Wet Trees :: Winter :: Woodland
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