Will cutting back my roses in the middle of summer kill them?

Question

Deer have stripped the leaves off the branches of my rose bushes. Will my plants do better if I cut them back now? They're basically green sticks with thorns coming out of the ground. Any new growth I see in the evening is gone by the morning.

I did have some luck with putting sevin dust on them to deter the deer, but when it rains at night, the wonderful creatures just chow down in the morning.

Anyway, I was thinking that cutting the roses back would be less stressful on the plant and that maybe next year, one of my neighbors will have tastier plantings.

Answer 1

If the deer eat the roses this year, they will probably eat them next year too.

Can you put a fence around them?  

Check with your local garden center for advice.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

The other posters here are right:  you should fence your roses in.  Deer can jump over 10' high.  Sevin can be toxic to the deer.

Trimming the roses back this time of year won't kill them.  They may just be prone to grow some more again.

Answer 4

Deer can be quite troublesome. They generally don't care for thorny plants, but still like the tender new growth and flowers.

And no, cutting them back is not going to hurt them. It will make them shorter of course, and possibly fuller.

Now, you need some deer deterrents. Plant a mint as a ground cover. The fragrance bothers the deers sense of smell, (they can't detect predators and leave.

You can as a temporary measure lay some chain link fence down on the ground in front of them . They do not like to walk on that. Repellents are short term. Set a motion detector attached to a hose sprinkler, that goes off when it senses  a heat presence.

Good luck.

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