I bought two beautiful Tuberous Begonias from a local nursery last Friday a critter who shall remain nameless (resident Chipmunk) mowed one down completely the second is hanging by a thread and looks awful. My question when it starts to get warmer will they re-grow or are they toast and I will need to buy new ones? I was asking on the Canadian Gardening group on Facebook what to do about protecting my plants from the Chipmunk and one suggestion was to put some rocks or even Christmas ornaments around the plants because they love to dig in fresh dirt. I did that tonight. I’ll see what happens.Will they come back?
Thank you for contacting the Toronto Master Gardeners.
I know how frustrating this can be especially after this long cold spring when all we want to do is spend time outdoors and see some colour. You do not mention how much of the begonias they have eaten. Are there nodes left on the stems? A node is the part of the plant stem where the flowers, branches, and leaves first start to grow. If this is the case then the plant will push out more leaves and eventually produce flowers. It might take most of the summer for the plant to get back to full bloom. Make sure to keep your plant watered and fertilized with (15-30-15). Make sure to follow the directions on the package.
There are a number of blogs that mention annuals which apparently are not a favourite selection of chipmunks: alyssum, angelonia, blue salvia, browallia, celosia, coleus, euphorbia, geranium, lantana, heliotrope, marigolds (occasionally rabbits), mecardonia, melampodium, nicotiana, pentas, New Guinea impatiens, vinca, calibrachoa and zinnia.
In my opinion, when a rabbit, deer or chipmunk are hungry they are not selective and will eat just about anything.