When my clients ask me to include lilies and tulips in their landscapes, I know that precautions are in order. Between voles, mice, and pocket gophers, what starts out as an attractive planting can soon become a ratty eyesore.
Years ago, after losing several plantings of lilies, I decided to try borrowing protection from daffodils, which rodents don’t eat. In my first experiment, I planted lilies in a bed of daffodils. The lilies went untouched. I’ve since found that lilies and tulips planted at normal spacings, with daffodils interplanted throughout at roughly two to four bulbs per square foot, also go untouched.
