I second Marc's recommendation. Here in vole territory that is the only way I can grow my saffron. A friend makes cages of 1/4" hardware cloth which is functional but cumbersome for weeding and sorta ugly. Instead, I decided they didn't care about the foliage so I didn't have to protect it. So I just laid a coarser (1/2") hardware cloth on the ground and mulched over it. This allowed most of the saffron foliage to find its way to the surface while protecting the bulbs from predation. The edges needn't be buried deep but they do need to extend well past the bulbs in question. I used 4' wide hardware cloth for a 3' wide bed and that seemed sufficient for voles. You may get by with larger mesh for larger bulb/rodent combinations.. 1" poultry mesh (known to us boomers as chicken wire) might be sufficient and would be way cheaper than 1" hardware cloth, but I really don't know how big gophers are. But it does seem that rodents can crawl through a way smaller hole than they can dig through and they are not smart enough to back away from what they want before digging. Tim in Lancaster county PA - the land of voles On Tue, Oct 4, 2022 at 9:34 AM Marc Rosenblum via pbs < pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote: > Laura, > > Watch the NARGS & SRGC seed exchanges for replacement seed of both > genra. Try planting your replacement seedlings in fully enclosed welded > wire mesh cages with the lowr 1/3 in the ground. While the cages are > certainly not beautiful, their contents still can be. > > Marc > > On 10/4/2022 4:04 AM, Laura Grant via pbs wrote: > > Oh Robert, > > I really feel for you. It is so frustrating to spend energy, time and > money > > to aquire and grow plants you love to see them vanish as a meal to > wildlife. > > I lost all of my Dachtilorhiza and most of the Schizostylis to voles last > > winter. I can not replace Dachtilorhiza as I can not find anyplace that > > sells them any more. > > Laura > > _______________________________________________ > > pbs mailing list > > pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net > > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… > > Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> > > PBS Forum latest: > https://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbsforum/index.php/… > > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… > Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> > PBS Forum latest: > https://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbsforum/index.php/… > _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> PBS Forum https://…