Midnight Marauder

Lily bloom gone!

Sometime between bedtime and get-up, the blooms of several choice plants have been disappearing -- actually not completely disappearing.  Chewed parts of blooms are evident each time the marauder attacks.

The first instance of evening evil was the missing white lily blooms – yes, that white lily that pleasantly surprised us last season. We found the stem of the lily broken over and all of the six blooms gone.  Strewn across our sitting bench, were bits and pieces, stamens and pistils and fragments of the petals of those perfect blooms.  To my mind, a singularly heinous crime.

A few days (nights) later, the pink lily was broken over at ground level and once again the flower buds were gone.  Soon to follow was the bloom of a liatris,  and just this morning three stems of the purple coneflower, the totally ravaged parts strewn near the plants.

A geranium from one of my pots and the eggplant seedling from another pot have also disappeared.  The geranium disappeared in stages.  First went the blooms and then, bit by bit, the whole plant.  The eggplant did not go without a fight. It was dug out by the midnight marauder and replanted by me several times until one morning the plant had completely disappeared. 
 

The culprit could be the new batch of squirrels (young squirrels are so inquisitive), or it might be the chipmunk family. I’m guessing the dirty deeds were not done by the skunk nor the raccoons; neither of those two of those critters are bloomivores.  I’m putting my money on the chipmunks because I know for a fact that it was chipmunks that ate the roots of my Bloodroot under the cover of snow last winter.  On the basis of that deduction,  I am declaring outright war on chipmunks.  They are now persona non grata in my garden.  The problem is how to communicate the message.

UPDATE/April 2017:  A rabbit has been spotted in our yard several times by my grandaughter.  This year tulip leaves have been nipped and crocuses dug out.  Our marauder may be a rabbit.  it is a known fact that the Easter Bunny has a taste for buds.