Bunny vs Clematis

[dyna99]

And the bunny won....it ate the clematis!! Now the question is, will the clematis come back? This is from a friend of mine....

 

Came back in from covering my flowers (frost?). Only to find that a damn rabbit took care of my clematis! Grrr! I should've listened to the cashier at WalMart when I bought it. She said her mom had the same trouble w/ the little pests! Do they grow back? Or should I say screw it and plant something else? The flowers & leaves are gone.

Can any of you help??

[Gilb3314]

i think it will come back, lavendar or petee can probably say for sure. Maybe find some wire and put around it

[dyna99]

i think it will come back, lavendar or petee can probably say for sure. Maybe find some wire and put around it

That's what I told her too....put a small fence around the bottom of the plant....

 

Waiting on one of them to answer.....thanks!!

[lavender]

As long as the root is intact it will probably come back. It helps if part of the stem is there, as well. A good healthy plant will put out more leaves very quickly but it will be awhile before you get flowers. This is not the season for clematis to bloom and they usually need a few years in the ground before they flower. Yours was probably forced. If the rabbit ate of the tip of the leader the plant will branch and it will take a bit of time before it gets any bigger. 

I agree the only way to keep the buggers off your plants is to put up some kind of a physical barrier. 

Clematis are tricky. I've killed almost every kind except the small purple ones. They like their heads in the sun and their feet in the shade. 

[Petee]

Put them in sunshine, make sure the roots are cool and moist, like behind a rock or some ground cover, and feed them.  They'll grow.  Just keep the bunny from eating it again and it may just think it was pruned badly, then come back with a vengeance.

 

You can put up a barrier or spray with a liquid meant to deter critters.