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Shrubs rabbits won't like!

Babsie

Wise Old Thumper
I know it's a big ask, but can anyone give me any ideas as to what shrubs I can plant that won't be poisonous to my bunnies but which they won't be keen to eat! (They ate everything I had in my garden, so am having to start again). They now have their own half of the garden so shouldn't be able to get at my shrubs - but you know what they're like for getting to where they shouldn't!
 
Sorry, can't be of any help as all I have in my back garden are some ornamental grasses and heathers as they are the only things that Louie doesn't like!

I have all my tubs and nice flowers in the front!
 
I have had similar problems with my rabbits eating all my plants and flowers!:(:( I have found through experience that they do not like Pieris shrubs at all so I now have 2 different varieties in my garden they are evergreen and have white flowers and different colour leaves.

I have also found they don't tend to eat wall climbing shrubs once they are quite high. So when I plant a climbing shrub now if it's really small I put a piece of chicken wire around it to stop buns eating it and take it off once the plant has grown a lot.

I have also had to move all my tubs with plants in out to the front garden as many a time I would find the buns sat in the plant pot munching away with a guilty look on their face!! :lol::lol:
 
I'm not really bumping this expecting more replies - it just goes to show, from the lack of advice, that they will eat (almost) anything!:lol:
 
Hydrangea (not a shrub, per-say), Budleia are two that I can remember.

I have a whole list my mum made for me (she's a garden designer and knows her plants.) I'll try to find the list for you.
 
I'm not really sure what they won't eat that isn't poisonous - But I know mine love variegated weigelia (think that's how it is spelt) but my shrub is sooo big that a few leaves missing doesn't get noticed. Also my new zealand flax gets nibbled at the ends so I assume it isn't poisonous - but the leaves are very tough and can withstand a bit of nibbling. My trick is to protect young shrubs with mesh or wire fencing until they are big enough to withstand the occasional nibble!
 
I have also found they don't tend to eat wall climbing shrubs once they are quite high. So when I plant a climbing shrub now if it's really small I put a piece of chicken wire around it to stop buns eating it and take it off once the plant has grown a lot.

I had the opposite experience. Many times over the years I've thought to myself that one of my passion flower/clematis type things has been looking a bit sad, and on closer investigation have discovered that it's been snipped off at the base - even when it's grown into quite a trunk.

I also feel your pain on the pots. I thought I had been clever by buying really tall, colourful pots and growing plants in them...except it took the buns probably less than 20 minutes to master vertical take-off and landing :lol:
 
I got rid of mine the other week, I thought they were pretty toxic?

Not sure about poisonous, but I've been told rabbits won't touch them. :? I don't have any plants yet, but plan on having raised beds with run wire around them, so the buns can't get to them. :mrgreen: :lol:
 
I don't have any plants yet, but plan on having raised beds with run wire around them, so the buns can't get to them. :mrgreen: :lol:

My bunnies soon learnt how to jump 2 foot fence and 3 ft gate around my shrub boarders! I'm going to have to increase it to 4 ft all the way around - which kind of detracts from the point of having lovely shrubs ! Oh, well... things we do for our buns
 
My bunnies soon learnt how to jump 2 foot fence and 3 ft gate around my shrub boarders! I'm going to have to increase it to 4 ft all the way around - which kind of detracts from the point of having lovely shrubs ! Oh, well... things we do for our buns

:lol::lol::lol::lol: Mine are too heavy to bother jumping anything over 2.5ft. :oops::lol:
 
I gave up with any plants. Mine even eat heathers!!! the only thing that has survived is the ivy that I cant stop growing over & under the fence from next doors garden. They have left my forsythia pretty much alone but I just have a garden full of hanging baskets 6 foot in the air.
 
my mum had a massive rosemary bush that survived 12 years of buns, it wasn't high on their list of favourites, and grew pretty quickly. Other than that....umm...no...

Your garden is nothing but a buffet for buns!!

:lol::lol::lol:
 
Ooooh! I've been looking for threads like this! Need aLOT of garden advice...

My buns have as much free run of the garden as I can give them but since joining this group I've got panicky about loads of my [plants being poisonous! :( It seems nearly everything is :( and it's really hard to find out about plants / flowers / shrubs that AREN'T poisonous. So if this thread continues it wil be a really useful one to follow :)

I got rid of mine the other week, I thought they were pretty toxic?

I've got 4 or 5 hydrangea in my garden, already here when I moved in, not my choice but filling big gaps and look better than bare ground! But I have seen hydrangea on a list of poisonous plants ( http://adoptarabbit.org/articles/toxic.html ) so got all panicky!! The buns don't seem to eat it at all, they do like to hide in the shade under it. The list seems to say loads of things are poisonous, but I'm wondering which would be deadly / seriously poisonous and which the buns just won't like??? So I know what to try and get rid of first!

Other plants I have in my garden that the list says are poisonous are:
Chrysanthemum
Clematis
Daffodil
Aquilegia
Foxglove (now dug up as I KNOW this is very poisonous, had buns die from it when I was a kid :(
Geranium
Lily of the Valley
Sweet pea (seeds) - the buns have nipped of the bottoms of the stems to my wild sweet peas so that they die from bottom up :( they seem to like the sweet peas!!?
Violet (seeds)

BUT then I also need to know of rabbit safe plants to replace all the poisonous ones!!

Clever knowledgeable plant people please add to this thread :)
 
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Bay, Myrtle, Box (not dreadfully poisonous but apparently they don't touch it - so I bought a miniature one and sure as anything neither (when Nino was around) touched it and I grew it in a pot on the patio at bunny heigh!), Buddleia, Spotted laurel (except Poppy does eat this - it's NOT a true laurel) Pieris, Hebe, Rosemary and Lavender of course but would get nibbled, perennial fuscia, Sedges/Grasses, Cotoneaster (I think as they never touched it here when we had it). We have a very vigorous climber on our back wall.... Russian Vine that is apparently edible, Poppy eats any bits she can reach and the other day to prove to me it was safe my dad ate a few leaves of the thing! :lol: But it grows crazy fast like Wisteria (which I would NOT recommend in a bunny garden) and sends out feelers all over the shop! :wave:
 
Ooooh! I've been looking for threads like this! Need aLOT of garden advice...

My buns have as much free run of the garden as I can give them but since joining this group I've got panicky about loads of my [plants being poisonous! :( It seems nearly everything is :( and it's really hard to find out about plants / flowers / shrubs that AREN'T poisonous. So if this thread continues it wil be a really useful one to follow :)



I've got 4 or 5 hydrangea in my garden, already here when I moved in, not my choice but filling big gaps and look better than bare ground! But I have seen hydrangea on a list of poisonous plants ( http://adoptarabbit.org/articles/toxic.html ) so got all panicky!! The buns don't seem to eat it at all, they do like to hide in the shade under it. The list seems to say loads of things are poisonous, but I'm wondering which would be deadly / seriously poisonous and which the buns just won't like??? So I know what to try and get rid of first!

Other plants I have in my garden that the list says are poisonous are:
Chrysanthemum
Clematis
Daffodil
Aquilegia
Foxglove (now dug up as I KNOW this is very poisonous, had buns die from it when I was a kid :(
Geranium
Lily of the Valley
Sweet pea (seeds) - the buns have nipped of the bottoms of the stems to my wild sweet peas so that they die from bottom up :( they seem to like the sweet peas!!?
Violet (seeds)

BUT then I also need to know of rabbit safe plants to replace all the poisonous ones!!

Clever knowledgeable plant people please add to this thread :)

True perennial geraniums are perfectly safe and edible. It is the pelargonium that is not. :):wave:
 
True perennial geraniums are perfectly safe and edible. It is the pelargonium that is not. :):wave:

Hmm, my geranium seems abit wild in my garden, it has spread over a whole bed. It is green leaved with small purple flowers?

Thanks for the other plant info, I'll keep researching the plants I've got and see which I need to pull out!! Clever buns have survived so far with horrid foxgloves etc (now pulled up) they seem to know which to avoid?! Even the vet seemed to think this was the case... but I do get a bit worried. That's why I want to know HOW poisonous the plants I listed above are.

The buns would hate it if I had to keep them in run all day, even though it's big! They get grumpy!!!!
 
Cant really give advice. All I've got is grass/concrete and bark chippings in my garden. I do however have quite a high, wide wall, and I have various tubs/hanging baskets up there. The bunnies can't reach up there (though they often try!)
 
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