SEATTLE — Northwest gardening expert Ciscoe Morris says, "Nothing cheers up the garden like spring-blooming bulbs, and there are so many great ones to choose from. The problem is deer and rabbits and other critters tend to eat ‘em up, so you gotta find the ones that those guys will leave alone."
One of his all-time favorites is grape hyacinth. The bulbs are easy to grow and they naturalize so that the little blue blooms spread. And Ciscoe says that generally, deer and rabbits won’t eat the blooms, but he did find some gnawed grape hyacinth leaves in his Seattle garden. He’s been visited by urban bunnies lately, he has the photographic evidence to prove it. The rabbits did some damage to foliage, but the flowers are not getting eaten.
Chionodoxa, or ‘glory of the snow’, is another one of Ciscoe’s favorites and pests leave these purple flowers alone.
“I remember in Wisconsin they'd come up through the snow," Ciscoe said. "You can plant one, they come up whenever they want. I love the livin' tweedle out of these!”
Then he showed a flower with a maroon and white checkerboard pattern on the blossom.
“This thing is so special, it's called Fritillaria Meleagris. This beautiful plant has one thing it needs, no deer, no rabbit will touch it, but they die out for a lot of people because they don't like too much sun, they hate drying out.”
Ciscoe waters his regularly, and it’s also near a birdbath that overflows, keeping the spot moist so the unique flowers can thrive.
For his final pest-free spring bloomer, Ciscoe showed off a plant with low mounded greenery and yellow flowers.
“Here's a wildflower you can't go wrong with. It's called Erythronium. People call it ‘dog tooth lily.’ I guarantee no deer, no rabbit, no nada is gonna bite this thing, all they need is a little sun, and they just become a bigger and bigger clump, just indestructible.”
Ciscoe added that he wasn’t always anti-bunny.
“So I leave you with one thought. When I was a kid I had the cutest little pet bunny you'll ever see in your life. I HATE THOSE BUNNIES NOW!”
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